Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Pull out case v. Transco exec: DOJ
THE justice department has ordered the withdrawal of a sexual harassment case a former assistant Cebu City prosecutor had lodged against her boss at the National Transmission Corp. (Transco).
In a 13-page resolution penned by Undersecretary Ernesto Pineda for Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, “a single text message of sexual connotation” does not make a sexual harassment.
The absence of other messages of a similar nature, Pineda said, lends credence to respondent Noel de Leon’s claim that the message was intended for his wife and not former assistant city prosecutor-turned Transco lawyer Perla Centino.
“Even if we consider the text message in question as a demand, request or requirement for sexual favor, the complaint still fails,” the resolution read.
Centino earlier filed a sexual harassment complaint against de Leon before the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor.
Centino said de Leon, who she identified as her superior at TransCo, sent her a text message sometime in November 2005, saying that he wanted to be in bed with her and hear her “moans and groans.”
She said the message was sent after she and other people from TransCo had dinner with de Leon here in Cebu and that it was merely the culmination of similar verbal statements made to her by de Leon in previous encounters.
She maintained that the message unnerved her and ultimately caused her to maintain a respectable distance between her and de Leon.
She, however, alleged that her move to distance herself from her boss, and the fact that she showed other people his “insulting text message”, later cost her an appointment as regional attorney III.
Assistant City Prosecutor Daphne Degoma recommended the dismissal of the complaint for want of evidence. The recommendation was subsequently affirmed by City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon.
Centino, however, filed a petition for review before the Office of the Regional State Prosecutor and managed to secure a reversal from then acting Regional State Prosecutor Llena Ipong, who approved the recommendation of Assistant State Prosecutor Allain Gallego.
But De Leon elevated the matter to the Office of the Justice Secretary, hence the resolution.
Pineda, in crafting the ruling, gave credence to de Leon’s claim that the message was actually intended for his wife and that he was just as surprised as Centino when it was the latter who replied.
Besides, Pineda said, the message, on its face, does not hint of a demand, request or requirement of sexual favor.
“Without this element, a complaint for sexual harassment will surely crumble,” the resolution read.
“The text message in question was not subject to any condition for complainant’s continued employment for the grant of any favorable compensation, term or condition of employment to her. The text message was straightforward and unconditional.”
Moreover, the text message did not result in either a diminution or discrimination of Centino’s employment, said the resolution. (KNR)
