Councilor Revisits Anti-Sexual Harassment Board

Cebu City Councilor Gerardo “Gerry” Carillo could not believe that there is no sexual harassment committed, involving female City Hall employees, for the past 11 years.

This disbelief prompted the south district city legislator to sponsor a resolution that was passed by the City Council in last week’s session, calling the attention of the head of the City Hall’s personnel division or the Human Resource Development Office.

Carillo recalled that he was among the city legislators who approved the creation of the so-called Committee on Decorum and Investigation of Cases on Sexual Harassment in the city government of Cebu on October 2, 2002.

The measure was made after the Civil Service Commission advised all local government units to create an Administrative Disciplinary Rules on sexual harassment cases in relation to the mandate of Republic Act 7877 or the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act.

The committee was created purposely to investigate, determine and decide sexual harassment complaints and make recommendation to the mayor for appropriate sanctions against the violators.

Carillo had observed that despite of the existence of said measure nothing has been reported by the said committee relative to sexual harassments.

He requested Atty. Dominic Diño, head of the Human Resource Development Office (HRDO) to update the City Council on the implementation of said city ordinance that created the committee.

The law provides that the supervisors, managers or head of offices may violate the provisions of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act if they compel their female employees to give them sexual favors or by forcing them to accompany to a date with a threat of dismissal or whatever if the concerned employees will not accede to the requests.