The former administrator of the Cebu South Bus Terminal (CSBT) will go on trial for allegedly making sexual advances on a female food vendor over a year ago.
The Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office indicted Vicente Dejoras Jr. on charges of acts of lasciviousness. Bail was recommended at P12,000.
Assistant City Prosecutor Fatima Asjali-Maadil resolved the case without Dejoras’ counter-affidavit which was not filed on time.
In her resolution, Maadil said she was convinced that Dejoras was prompted with lewd design when he kissed and hugged the complainant inside the CSBT administrator’s office.
“The use of force and violence in pulling the complainant’s hand when the latter refused to submit herself clearly suggests an attempt to subdue the resistance of the latter,” the prosecutor said in her resolution.
Dejoras, who was relieved from his post last month after he allegedly punched a bus dispatcher, was orginally accused of unjust vexation. But Maadil downgraded the charge to acts of lasciviousness.
Under the law, acts of lasciviouness is defined as the act of making a physical contact with the body of another person for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification other than, or without intention of, sexual intercourse.
On Aug. 8, 2013, the complainant alleged that he was called by Dejoras through the phone, asking her to go to the CSBT administrator’s office.
The complainant, who sells food at the bus terminal’s food court, said Dejoras threatened not to renew her contract if she won’t go to his office.
While in the CSBT administrator’s office, she said Dejoras kissed her.
“I realized that what he did is wrong so I pushed him. But he pulled my right hand and hugged me tight. I pushed him again. He then told me in the vernacular ‘Di gyud ka? Gusto ka lisud-lisuron tika sa imong pagpaninda? Di nako i-renew ang imong kontrata?’ (Are you sure you don’t like what I did? You want to have a hard time selling viands? I will not renew your contract),” the complainant recalled in her affidavit.
She said Dejoras executed lewd acts and intimidated her every time she was called to the office of the accused.
Dejoras filed his counter-affidavit last June 26, 2014 — over a month after the prosecutor resolved the complaint filed against him.
He explained that the accusations against him were all lies and concocted by the complainant.
“The accusations are done in an obvious attempt to harass and hold me hostage in order for me, as administrator of the CSBT, to give in to her demand so she may continue to enjoy the unwarranted benefits and perks she had been enjoying as canteen concessioner,” Dejoras said.
He said the accusations against him are not supported by documentary evidence and testimonies of witnesses.
Fabricated
Three employees of the Cebu provincial government assigned at the CSBT executed a joint affidavit in favor of Dejoras.
They said the accusations levelled against Dejoras were “fabricated, invented, and fictitious.”
“We have heard her (complainant) so many times in public saying how much she likes respondent, that she would love to have a baby sired by respondent and the likes,” the three CSBT employees said.
Last August, Gov. Hilario Davide III relieved Dejoras from his post as administrator of the CSBT on accusations of punching a bus dispatcher.
The relief order came after Dejoras served a 10-day preventive suspension as the Committee on Discipline and Investigation (CODI) of the Cebu provincial government came in to conduct a probe.
Dejoras was reassigned to the Civil Security Unit (CSU).
Dejoras used to serve as chief of Cebu City’s Squatters Prevention Encroachment and Elimination Division (Speed). But in 2003, former Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña relieved him after several allegations of corruption. He was accused of bringing home an air-conditioning unit and some roofing sheets — an accusation which Dejoras also denied.