Monday, December 24, 2007 Seares: Spare the kisser By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
A FEMALE employee was caught kissing her boyfriend in her Cebu City Hall office while she was working overtime.
That came with the report that City Hall guards caught a male employee stealing a welding machine.
On a slow news day, the story landed on Page 1. The City lost P100,000 for the welding machine and some amount for misspent overtime.
No question about the theft, which was unlawful conduct. It’s the kissing incident that can’t be labeled easily. Was it misconduct under employees’ code of behavior?
The report says the kissers switched off the light. So how did the guard capture in the dark the image of lovers locked in a steamy kiss?
Standards
By standards of fiscals or judges, the kissing was no public scandal.
Remember the couple caught humping in a car parked at a mall basement?
A guard, attracted by the rocking of the vehicle, had to peer through heavily tinted glass to see that it wasn’t an earthquake that was shaking the car. Case dismissed.
How about those Japanese filmmakers who shot on video scenes of a couple making love on an abandoned beach of an uninhabited island in Lapu-Lapu City?
Bird sanctuary watchers from afar had to use high-powered binoculars to see them. The foreigners pleaded guilty, paid the fine, and left Cebu. They could have won the case as there was no public exhibition of porno movie.
The City Hall kisser didn’t even pilfer government time. She can claim she was on coffee break, only that she preferred making out to making coffee.
Reprimand the young woman, along with the advice that next time they take a room where there are no prying eyes.
