Vizcaya employee’s fate sealed with a stolen kiss

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — Provincial employee Ernesto Sobrepeña Jr.’s fate was sealed with a kiss.

Last April, he found himself suspended for 90 days, and now, he will have to spend one month in jail, all because he stole a kiss from a female subordinate last year.

Sobrepeña was convicted for unjust vexation last Tuesday by Municipal Trial Court Judge Alexander Balut, who also ordered him to pay the plaintiff P10,000 as moral and exemplary damages and for attorney’s fees.

Trouble started last year when, according to records, he stole that kiss from and also repeatedly sent verbal messages with sexual connotations to a subordinate at the provincial cooperative affairs office of which he was the officer-in-charge.

Acting on the woman’s complaint, the provincial government’s committee on decorum and investigation placed Sobrepeña under 90-day suspension last April 15. He was reinstated last Aug. 15 but was transferred to another office.

Sobrepeña, however, has maintained his innocence, saying he never intended to sexually harass the woman.

He said their families had been very close, having come from the same town (Villaverde), until the complaint cropped up.

In Diadi town, meanwhile, municipal assessor Benjamin Sanchez Jr. also finds himself in the same bind.

Three of his female employees have accused him of sexual harassment, for which he is now serving a 60-day suspension effective July 3 for "disgraceful and immoral conduct."

Sanchez’s ordeal apparently cut short his euphoria after his office was adjudged recently as the region’s most outstanding.

In a sworn affidavit, one of the complainants said the Diadi assessor forcibly embraced and tried to kiss her when they had a field trip to Bulacan on Nov. 18, 2000.

"He (Sanchez) went near me, grabbed my arm, pulled me toward him and then tried to kiss me," she said.

The second employee claimed that Sanchez had sent her text messages with sexual connotations, the latest of which was sometime in March this year.

Both employees are married.

The third employee, for her part, recalled that Sanchez pinched her left arm twice "in a slow manner and (with) strong pressure applied" last April 5.

Sanchez, she added, also sent her text messages such as "I like you. Have a date with me."

Diadi Mayor Marvic Padilla said Sanchez might lose his job if found guilty of the accusations.