Denise ‘Deng’ Tee, the Philippines’ artistic who in August accused Gigil co-founder Herbert Hernandez of sexual harassment, filed a counterclaim on Wednesday (October 20) defending herself towards the cyber libel criticism Hernandez filed towards her.
“I’ve no axe to grind towards Herbert, however a rightful expectation that he come clean with his mistake,
merely apologize, and do no extra hurt,” Tee mentioned in an announcement offered to Marketing campaign Asia-Pacific. “His perjurious refusal to confess his mistake and, worse, his submitting of a baseless criticism, is to victimize me but once more, and to victimize different girls whom he denies even exist.”
The paperwork Tee filed Wednesday embody testimony from “different victims and a number of witnesses”, in response to Tee’s media assertion.
The incident, though it came about years in the past, prompted “psychological and emotional trauma” and prompted Tee to inform her story, she mentioned. “I spoke the reality. And the reality is that my perpetrator was not some unnamed, nameless individual. He existed, and he had a reputation and a face, and it belonged to Mr. Hernandez. Because it turned out, his was the title and the face for different girls as effectively.”
In her counter-affidavit, Tee reaffirmed the statements made in her August 12 Fb submit, which detailed Hernandez’s alleged requests for sexual favours in change for a jury seat on the 2015 Kidlat Awards. That submit prompted Hernandez to file a cyber libel criticism towards Tee on August 26.
Hernandez’s criticism in flip prompted an outpouring of help for Tee, and led the Philippines 4As to companion with girls’s organisation Gabriela, which agreed to signify girls who wished to return ahead with their very own accounts of work-related harassment. This led to a surge of experiences, together with 5 towards Hernandez, in response to Gabriela secretary basic Joms Salvador, who spoke with Marketing campaign Asia-Pacific in September (see “Sexual harassment ‘rampant’ within the advert business and has been ‘coated up’: Philippines girls’s organisation Gabriela”).
Salvador mentioned in Wednesday’s media assertion that the ability of Tee’s Fb submit stemmed from its honesty in naming her harasser, “which in and by itself is a testomony to the reality and credibility of the narration”.
“A ‘blind merchandise’ wouldn’t have achieved the identical end result, and would have solely mirrored timidity which is the same old case from girls victims, which is exactly why males goal them with seeming impunity,” Salvador mentioned. “Within the Philippines, it’s not straightforward for ladies to complain. The method just isn’t solely arduous, however the victims themselves are sometimes shamed as in the event that they had been the events at fault. The same old response I get from girls victims is: ‘What did I do mistaken?’”
Associated: Merlee Jayme, Dentsu Worldwide’s APAC chief artistic officer, was amongst those that mirrored, within the wake of Tee’s accusations towards Hernandez, about how harassment can slip by way of the cracks—and what could be finished to make sure that it does not. See “How did we get right here? Merlee Jayme discusses why sexual harassment has permeated the advert business”).