Tuesday, November 25, 2008 Seares: Was Gwen stalked? By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
A BROADCASTER sug gests that Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia was the victim of a stalker when a man grabbed her arm and held on to it for seconds until he was dragged away by the mayor’s bodyguards.
Last Sunday night’s incident in City of Naga lent some excitement to the rites closing “Suroy-Suroy sa Sugbo.”
Was Archimedes Reroma, an engineer and frustrated politician, a stalker? He was among the crowd that surged to greet Gwen as the “Suroy” ended. Instead of just shaking her hand, he seized her arm and didn’t let go.
Stalking, as a crime in many states of the US, is committed when a person willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows, harasses, and contacts another person.
Pattern of behavior must show persistence and repetition. What happened in Naga didn’t make Reroma a stalker and Gwen the stalked.
No stalking law
We have no law on stalking but there must be some other law to address the fear of harm that a “reasonable person” who’s being stalked would feel.
Celebrity elements of power and charm in Gwen surely invite stalking but thank God our nutheads don’t even come close to their counterparts in the States.
There hasn’t been a Pinoy aping John Hinckley, who shot President Regan to impress movie star Jodie Foster, or Mark
Chapman, who gunned down ex-Beatle John Lennon “to steal his fame.”
Maybe Reroma was just exuberant, induced by alcohol or stunned by Gwen’s beauty.
We have no stalkers and we don’t need to criminalize stalking.
The sexual harassment law has helped make romance flee the workplace. And a stalking law might penalize a smitten
swain’s unceasing pursuit of his true love.
