MANILA-based entertainer Jennifer Lee shed tears in front of Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and Provincial Board (PB) Member Agnes Magpale yesterday, as she apologized for a show held during last year’s Holy Week.
She and actress Maui Taylor’s mother, Annette, conveyed the apology with a promise to work for women’s concerns.
Magpale is the author of the Women Development Code of Cebu, which the governor said the respondents violated, together with Article 201 of the Revised Penal Code and a municipal ordinance of Sta. Fe, when they performed in that “bikini open” held in Bantayan Island.
Written apology
Garcia has asked for a written public apology, signed by all the respondents and published in at least three of Cebu’s daily newspapers.
“We, the undersigned respondents, would like to apologize to the people of Cebu for the wrong we have caused by our participation in and/or organization of the incident,” the one-page apology stated.
That show provoked the governor to press charges against the organizers and performers.
“We realize that the purposes and objectives of the laws have been transgressed and we undertake never to commit the same wrong again,” the performers and organizers said.
Lee, Eugene Elton Tiu, Asuncion Celia Floro, Rommel Salomon and Mercury Gumera, the organizers and choreographer of the “Pump ‘N Summer” event, also pledged their full support for the Sta. Fe ordinance, the Women’s Code and the Revised Penal Code.
Back to school
Of the seven respondents, only model Paulo Paraiso was not included among the signatories because he still did not receive the summons.
Garcia ordered Provincial Attorney Marino Martinquilla to find out why.
Lee vowed to serve as an ambassadress of women’s concerns, together with actress Maui Taylor. They will speak during the Women’s Congress on March 19, 2010. Lee said their lives changed after the governor filed a case against them.
Lee, 25, went back to school after the Bantayan incident and is now studying Hospitality Management, major in Hotel Administration and Culinary Arts.
She said she is no longer active in show business.
Taylor was represented by her mother, because she was reportedly suffering from fever and chills yesterday.
As her daughter’s manager, the mother said she had not been informed on the nature of the Bantayan show.
Maui, she added, had texted her to complain that she was not comfortable with what the organizers asked her to do.
“Pero, wala na siyang magawa dahil bayad na siya. Ayaw na ayaw ni Maui ang mag-bikini, pinahinto na kasi siya ng Viva sa mga ganyang roles (She couldn’t do anything else because she had already been paid. Maui dislikes shows that require her to wear only a bikini, especially since Viva has asked her to stop performing such roles),” she said.
Asked about the status of the case, Provincial Attorney Marino Martinquilla said the primary concern now is the apology of the respondents.
“There’s a positive result of the filing of the case. It is not about the case, but about changing lives,” Martinquilla said.
The organizers also offered to assist the Capitol, especially in the upcoming Women’s Congress. They said that after the incident, they shifted their focus to corporate events.