CEBU, Philippines - An on-the-job-trainee filed a formal complaint before the City Legal Office against a city hall employee who allegedly harassed her through text messages.
The complainant started her training at City Hall last April 18 because her course required her to complete at least 200 hours of work experience at any establishment or institution.
She chose to have her training with the Cebu City government due to time constraint and after a friend convinced her to also have her OJT there.
The complainant did not expect though that she would receive “unruly” and “untoward” behavior from a government employee whose kind she used to look up to with high regard.
The accused, Oliver Ruiz, is an employee assigned at the Cebu City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicines Program. He is a job order employee who has been with City Hall for over a year now.
Ruiz allegedly sent the 19-year old OJT student text messages, threatening to defame her by posting her edited pictures in swimwear attire which Ruiz allegedly downloaded from the complainant’s Facebook account.
“Suplada lagi ka. Ako to e-display imo pic sa internet… hadlokon man ko nimo, ur just an ojt…I’m a programmer in IT, pwede man naku i-edit u pic then put ur name and skul diba? nice,” were Ruiz’s messages.
She allegedly met Ruiz when the latter visited the Public Information Office where the complainant is assigned.
As basic courtesy, she accepted the offer for friendship and gave him her contact number and Facebook account because Ruiz, she said, was persistent to get them.
They exchanged text messages very rarely because she said she does not reply often to his messages.
But last May 11, she was shocked and alarmed when Ruiz personally showed to her the downloaded photos from Facebook where she was wearing a swim suit.
“I requested him to delete the pictures from his phone as I do not feel comfortable having these pictures on someone else’s phone. I felt harassed and discriminated as a woman and a subordinate employee being only an OJT,” she said in her formal complaint.
On May 16, she went to the Mayor’s Office to run an errand and saw Ruiz but she decided not to pay him any attention.
When she was about to go back to her assigned office, Ruiz allegedly called her but she did not look back. When she arrived at the PIO, Ruiz started texting her the threatening messages which she saved in her phone.
In a phone interview, Ruiz denied that he downloaded daring pictures of the complainant but only the close-up shots.
“Dili ko buang nga tawo na mubuhat ana kay naa gud mi sa gobyerno. Naa man na’y sayop iyang complaint kay wala man ko nag-download og pictures niya nga nag-bikini siya,” Ruiz said.
He said the complainant only misinterpreted his messages and actions. He said that his txt messages to the complainant were only a joke.
“Nangayo nako og sorry niya ug ako s’yang giingnan na ako nang gi-delete tanan niyang pictures, hasta gain iyang number. Dili na nako siya hilabtan,” Ruiz told The FREEMAN.
He said he is ready to answer to her allegations and confident that will be vindicated. (FREEMAN)