Student intern ‘harassed’ in City Hall job
THE office of the Cebu City Mayor is looking into a complaint of harassment filed by a female college intern who said a City Hall employee, whose attention she spurned, threatened to post fake nude photos of her on the Internet.
The girl, a senior in a local college, was accompanied by her mother yesterday in submitting the letter for Mayor Michael Rama.
The student said she was sent threatening text messages by Oliver Ruiz, a job-order worker assigned in the City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicines Program (Champ) office, which is under the mayor’s office.
One of the texts read: “Im a programmer in IT, pwede man nako edit u pic din put ur name n skul..dba? Nice”
The girl, an on-the-job trainee, said she felt “harassed” by the texts, which “made me break down and cry.”
Philip Zafra, the mayor’s chief of staff, said the matter is being investigated and that the male employee accused faces termination if proven guilty.
When confronted, Oliver told the chief of staff the text messages were just a “joke.” He denied downloading photos of the student.
The two got acquainted when the student started her internship in City Hall.
She said she didn’t often reply to his texts until May 11, when Oliver showed her that he had downloaded a Facebook photo of her wearing a swimsuit to his mobile phone.
“I felt harassed and discriminated as a woman and a subordinate employee being only an OJT (on-the-job trainee)” her letter of complaint said.
On May 16, the student said she was running an errand at the mayor’s office and saw Oliver, who called out to her but she didn’t respond.
She later received a text from Oliver who called her “suplada.” She said the employee threatened to edit her photos to make them appear she was nude and post them in a new blog site with the name of her school.
Her parents went to City Hall last Tuesday to protest. On advice of the chief of staff, they filed a written complaint. Correspondent Fatrick Tabada
