Hotel manager nabbed for sexual harassment

A hotel manager was arrested and charged with sexual harassment after allegedly molesting a married female employee while she was doing an inventory in a hotel in Manila. Cresente Santillan, 54, resident manager of Hotel Indah on A. Villegas Street, Ermita, was nabbed Thursday by the District Special Project Unit of the Manila City Hall after a complaint was filed against him by a 33-year-old subordinate. Senior Insp. Marcelo Reyes of the DSPU said that around 10:45 a.m. of Aug. 21, the victim was conducting an inventory of items on the hotel’s eighth floor when the suspect suddenly hugged her, kissed her neck and touched her breasts. She said he continued his sexual advances despite her efforts to ward him off until they heard a noise, prompting Santillan to leave. The woman said the suspect tried to apologize later and asked her to keep quiet but she decided to seek the help of police. The complainant added that Santillan, in the past, had embraced and touched her whenever she made him coffee, but the most recent incident sent her running to the police. Santillan was charged with violating R.A. 7877 or the anti-sexual harassment act and Art. 336 of the Revised Penal Code (acts of lasciviousness) at the Manila City Prosecutor’s Office. Allison W. Lopez

Traffic rerouted Sunday in Mandaluyong loop

Motorists are advised to avoid Maysilo Circle and San Francisco Streets in Mandaluyong City from 6 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Sunday. The area is the venue for the city’s annual bicycle race sponsored by the Mandaluyong Cycling Federation, and will be closed to traffic on that day. The activity is part of the week-long celebration of Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II’s birth anniversary. Other activities include breaking ground for two projects in Addition Hills, Blocks 12 and 38 Covered Courts on Monday and a local overseas job fair led by the public employment service office at the city gymnasium on Tuesday. To start at 9 a.m. until the afternoon, it will offer hundreds of job vacancies here and abroad to qualified constituents. A new outpost and fire sub-station will be inaugurated in Block 39-40 of Addition Hills, apart from the new four-story Highway Hills Integrated School secondary building. On Aug. 27, daycare pupils from the city’s 24 daycare centers will get together for a day of fun and games at the city gymnasium. On Aug. 28, social infrastructure projects in three different barangays will finally start. On Gonzales’ birth anniversary (Aug. 29), the day will start with a mañanita at the Kaban ng Hiyas Building at 5 a.m. It will be followed at 8 a.m. by the holding of a lugawan where Gonzales will share a breakfast of lugaw (rice porridge) with his constituents. A concert and a bingo project have also been scheduled during the week.