A day after ABS-CBN entertainment anchor and reporter Gretchen Fullido filed complaints against Cheryl Favila, former ABS-CBN News executive, and Maricar Asprec, an ABS-CBN News segment producer, their legal counsel Evalyn Ursua released a statement and called the charges “baseless” and “a classic example of discrimination against LGBTQ individuals and gender stereotyping against them in matters of sexuality.”
“It is unfortunate that Gretchen Fullido has chosen to pursue a criminal complaint of sexual harassment against my clients Cheryl Favila and Maricar Asprec despite [the fact] that the same complaint had been previously dismissed as baseless after a thorough formal investigation within ABS-CBN,” Ursua said in a statement released to the media.
“This dismissal came about after Favila and Asprec proved that the text messages that Fullido used as evidence were distorted and maliciously taken out of their conversation threads,” she added.
On Monday afternoon, Fullido’s counsel Marvin Aceron shared with The Manila Times the formal complaint their camp had filed with the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office on Friday.
It contained, among others, the text messages Favila and Asprec supposedly sent to Fullido from 2015 to 2017 — “loaded with sexual innuendos, which amounted to requests for sexual favors,” as Aceron described in a statement last week.
The reporter’s camp alleged that Favila and Asprec gave Fullido “the feeling that she ‘needed to be close’ to them beyond the Boss-Colleague level” beginning April 2015 or when “Tara Grets” – a tourism-oriented segment hosted by Fullido – began airing on TV Patrol, ABS-CBN’s flagship newscast.
“Respondent Asprec would instruct Fullido (Complainant) to ‘make lambing’ (show affection) to respondent Favila whenever she was mad at Complainant for something,” the complaint stated.
‘Thursday Girl’
The complaint also claimed Favila and Asprec were in an “open relationship.”
“Under this relationship, respondent Favila usually reserved her Thursday for a third party. Respondent Asprec then asked Complainant (Fullido) to be respondent Favila’s ‘Thursday Girl.’ Knowing the connotation, Complainant rejected this ‘request/offer.’”
The complaint then cited the text messages that Favila sent to Fullido beginning 2015. Some of them included:
“I pitched for you to be the social media anchor for Election Marathon. But mas gusto ko pa rin ng (I still like a) strip-teaser. Gretch yata (Maybe).”
“Think of writing a story this way: having sex is different from ‘making love.’ Making love entails emotions, not just doing the act. Always try to ‘make love’ to your stories. I am very partial to it.”
“Thank you, Gretchen! Pero gusto ko ng live rendition ng Happy Birthday song mo, na naka super sexy outfit ka. Hahaha! Birthday ko naman, di ba?” (I want a live rendition of your Happy Birthday song with you wearing a super-sexy outfit. Hahaha! It’s my birthday anyway.)
“Good morning! Tara Grets was my shower moment this morning...”
“What time are you coming to work? (Fullido: On the way to [ABS-CBN] now. What’s up?) Wala naman. Miss lang kita. Masama ba? Sungit.” (Nothing. I miss you. Is that wrong? Crabby.) “Kailangan mo rin ng konting lambing sa katawan.” (You need some tenderness in your body.)
“Good luck on your Deal or No Deal. May the force be with you! Bawal ang jowa ha ... Lagot ka sa akin.” (Don’t hook up! I’ll see to that.)
“Promises fulfilled — I have opened the doors to your dreams by creating your own segment on TV Patrol, despite doubts and criticisms from various camps; I got you a talent fee increase, which is double of what you are currently getting (not really bad). I have set-up the stage for you. Now, it’s time for me to continue the journey to my destiny. Maktub. Good luck to yours. It’s nice to have crossed your path this lifetime, Gretchen.”
“Sana naman parati kang ganyan. Pagod na ako makipag-away. (I hope you’re always like that. I’m tired of fighting.) It’s emotionally draining, and you can’t take my intensity. So gets mo na ang style ‘di ba? (So, you get the style?) Be a good girl always.”
‘Leverage’
The complaint also stated that whenever Fullido rejected the supposed advances from Favila, the former’s stories and work would suffer.
The same files sent to The Manila Times by Fullido’s camp also showed the basis of libel complaints filed against her collegues namely, news executives Cecilia “Ces” Drilon and Venancio Borromeo, as well as news reporter Marie Lozano, for allegedly besmirching her reputation when they stated that she filed the administrative complaint last year “to leverage her employment status with ABS-CBN.”
During ABS-CBN’s internal investigation after Fullido’s filing of an administrative complaint against Favila and Aspre, Drilon allegedly stated:
“Gretchen’s accusations of sexual harassment against Chair (Favila) and Maricar (Asprec) also surprised me because many times, while I worked as anchor for TV Patrol, I witnessed [anchors] Ted Failon and Noli de Castro make side comments, in between breaks on TV Patrol, about Gretchen’s body, manner of dress, or behavior that, in my opinion, constituted sexual harassment or at least inappropriate behavior. But Gretchen Fullido only laughed off those comments. She never complained.”
“One remark she made in one party struck me: she said she was willing to wear a bikini with an inflatable pool and bubbles on TV Patrol to shore up its ratings,” Drilon was quoted as saying.
On July 16, ABS-CBN dismissed the case for sexual harassment against Favila, but found her liable for gross misconduct. A statement from ABS-CBN last week said this led to Favila’s dismissal from the company.