The Sandiganbayan has meted out a P10,000 fine — the lightest penalty — on a former Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, councilor after he pleaded guilty to sexual harassment.
In a four-page decision dated Aug. 22, the court’s Seventh Division allowed Carlo Villavicencio to withdraw an earlier plea of not guilty which he entered during his June 20, 2016, arraignment.
The court considered “the mitigating circumstance of the plea of guilty” in imposing the fine on Villavicencio, especially as this took place before the case headed to trial.
It noted that Villavicencio was informed that violation of Section 3 of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995, which penalizes workplace harassment, might be deemed a crime involving moral turpitude.
Although he was aware that he might face disqualification if he ran again for public office, the decision noted that “accused [Villavicencio] understood the same and persisted in his change of plea.”
By pleading guilty, Villavicencio avoided the maximum fine of P20,000 and the possibility of imprisonment from one to six months.
The former councilor was accused of soliciting sexual favors from a female technical assistant who in his office from August to December 2005. Prosecutors said he asked the employee to go out on a date and have sex in exchange for renewing her appointment.
When the woman rejected his advances, Villavicencio refused to renew or endorse her appointment at the Sangguniang Panlungsod for the period of January to June 2006. Prosecutors said this deprived her of employment opportunity.
Although he initially pleaded not guilty, Villavicencio later expressed willingness to change his plea in exchange for being meted out the lowest imposable penalty.
Yet, it took more than a year for the plea to be changed because he failed to appear for the pre-trial hearing, which had to be rescheduled several times.
Villavicencio’s “vacillation” even pushed the prosecution to get ready for trial and begin submitting the judicial affidavits of its intended witnesses.
The ambivalence finally ended last Aug. 8, when the court held its session in Cebu City and Villavicencio finally decided to plead guilty.
The verdict was penned by Associate Justice Ma. Theresa Dolores C. Gomez-Estoesta and concurred in by Associate Justices Zaldy V. Trespeses and Bayani H. Jacinto. CBB