Ex-police officer found guilty of sexual harassment

A former police regional director in Davao del Sur has been found guilty of sexually harassing a female subordinate   and ordered to pay the complainant P20,000.

Retired Senior Superintendent Cesar Darantinao, former director of the Philippine National Police in Davao del Sur, escaped being sentenced to jail, and was meted instead the maximum fine under the Anti-Sexual Harassment Law (Republic Act 7877).

The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division found Darantinao guilty of abusing his authority by intimidating and demanding sexual favors from a female junior officer in April 2008.

The court said Darantinao embraced and tried to steal kisses and asked the junior officer to sleep with him.

In one instance, he forced the junior officer to accompany him to a bar where he whispered lewd things to her, put his hand on her lap and tried to get her to sleep with him in his quarters.

His acts “can be readily perceived as constituting sexual harassment because they involved unwelcome sexual advances which are definitely offensive to the complainant, if not extremely embarrassing or discomfiting,” read the court decision written by Fifth Division chair Associate Justice Roland Jurado.

Darantinao also forced the junior officer to stay at a party and offered “financial assistance” in exchange for sexual favors.

These acts “demonstrate the exercise of accused’s power over complainant, and obviously done in pursuance of his ultimate goal of obtaining sexual favors from complainant,” the anti-graft court said.