TV anchor’s complaint ‘baseless, discriminatory’

The counsel for ABS-CBN news producers Cheryl Favila and Maricar Asprec, whom anchor Gretchen Fullido had accused of sexual harassment, called the complaint “baseless” and discriminatory against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community.

Lawyer Evalyn Ursua said in a Facebook post on Saturday that a similar complaint had been dismissed by the network after a formal probe.

“Her baseless complaint is also a classic example of discrimination against LGBTQ individuals and gender stereotyping against them in matters of sexuality,” she said. “The prevailing homophobia in society results in a stereotyped belief that women of same-sex sexual orientation indiscriminately go after any other woman or are prone to sexually harass other women.”

Ursua said ABS-CBN had dismissed the complaint after Favila and Asprec proved that the text messages Fullido used as evidence were “distorted and maliciously taken out of their conversation threads.”

She called on the LGBTQ community to look into the case and stand with her clients, whom she described as “decent and upright women.”

On Friday, Fullido, an anchor for TV Patrol, filed a complaint in the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office against the two producers and other colleagues for sexual harassment, libel and victim-shaming.

She accused Favila and Asprec of sending her messages “loaded with sexual innuendos, which amounted to sexual favors.” Although the station dismissed the charges, it fired Favila for gross misconduct.

On Sunday, Fullido, through her counsel Marvin Aceron, said that she appreciated the public’s reaction to her case.

“All I can say is these are public records now. The public can do their research and verify,” she added.