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By LINA SAGARAL REYES
Special Correspondent .

ILIGAN City – A 25-year-old literary writer has filed a rape and sexual harassment complaint against the keynote speaker and panelist at the 26th Iligan National Writers Workshop in May, three months after sparking a social media firestorm with her Facebook post on her experience of allegedly being abused.

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The complainant, a fellow for poetry at the workshop, named Timothy James Dimacali as the respondent in the complaint filed at the city prosecutor’s office of the 12th Judicial Region here on Nov. 14, this year. Dimacali is a science fictionist.

In submitting the complaint, Jenny Vieve Cabradilla, the complainant’s lawyer, asked the prosecutor’s office to look into Dimacali’s alleged violations under Republic Act 8353, the Anti-Rape Act of 1997, and RA 7877, the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995.

Cabradilla noted that the complaint of rape through sexual assault is defined under Article 266 A- paragraph 2 of RA 8353.

In her affidavit, the complainant alleged that the respondent inserted his sexual organ into her mouth while she was deprived of reason and thus could not have given consent.

The alleged violation, the complainant asserted, was also a form of sexual harassment as it occurred in a training environment as defined in Section 3 of RA 7877. The alleged sexual assault happened during the workshop-related socials within the premises of the sponsoring institution on the last day of the workshop.

 In Section 3 of RA 7877, work, education or training-related sexual harassment is defined as “committed by an employee, manager, supervisor, agent of the employer, teacher, instructor, professor, coach, trainer, or any other person who, having authority, influence or moral ascendancy over another in a work or training environment, demands, requests or otherwise requires any sexual favor from the other, regardless of whether the demand, request or requirement for submission is accepted by the object of said act.”

It happened, according to her affidavit, at the MSU-IIT Hotel within the Mindanao State University campus in Iligan City on May 31, 2019, after the culminating program of the writers’ workshop.

The complainant further said in her complaint-affidavit that the post-workshop party was held at around 10 pm at the secretariat room, which she described as having two beds, at the center of which was a large wood(en) table filled with food and liquor. She recalled there were also some chairs and a mattress.

She mentioned 15 individuals present at the revelry, including eight co-fellows, three senior fellows, two panelists, including Dimacali, the workshop director, and the secretariat head.

She also mentioned that most of the group were “drinking an assortment of alcoholic drinks, including two brands of brandy, vodka, beer, and wine,’’ and that she served drinks to at least nine other writers as she also drank by herself while the rest, including Dimacali and the workshop director, served themselves.

Four other fellows did not partake of any of the drinks but joined in the merrymaking. She said they were singing, dancing, and those who didn’t dance nor sing were having conversations, according to her affidavit.

At a certain point, Dimacali offered her “a cup of liquid contents” which she was obliged to take. She added that she took (the contents) and emptied whatever was inside while Dimacali “was pouring himself some vodka and other hard drinks.”

After taking the drink she felt “tired and dizzy,’’ and she decided to lay down and rest on a mattress across the door in the room, and barely five minutes later she remembered blacking out.

The next thing she knew, she was downstairs outside the doorway of a room with Dimacali who was allegedly kissing her, and she tried to parry him “from my body since I did not like what he was doing to me” but did not succeed as she felt “very tired and hazy and was not in control of (her) body.”

As Dimacali was allegedly kissing her body for several minutes, she blacked out again, the complainant said in her affidavit submitted to the Iligan prosecutor.

Later, when she gained some consciousness, she continued to narrate in her affidavit, she was with Dimacali in a room, and she noticed the latter’s member was in her mouth. She described that “he was lying on his back in the bed with his two hands holding my head.’’

“I was startled and shocked since I did not remember allowing myself in that lewd position with him,’’ she recalled. She said that she again passed out soon after.

She added in her affidavit that she woke up the next day finding herself alone in her room naked.

“I felt something was wrong,’’ she said. “My body was sticky.’’

She asked her roommate what happened to her but the latter told her she did not know anything. She later asked another co-fellow who told her he saw what had happened between her and Dimacali.

Dimacali, who could not be reached through his phone, earlier denied all charges against him in a Facebook post. He also stated that he would defend himself in the proper forum. The Facebook post has been deleted or its settings have been changed.

The prosecutor’s office is mandated to act on the complaint within 60 days from the filing of the complaint. Due process requires the prosecution to ask the respondent to submit a counter-affidavit.

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