Former Philippine ambassador quits university post over sexual assault charge
Reynaldo Arcilla, a retired diplomat under the Department of Foreign Affairs, has abruptly resigned as dean of the Lyceum of the Philippines University-Manila’s College of International Relations (LPU Manila-CIR) because of a sexual assault charge raised by one of the school’s graduates.
In a series of posts on her Facebook account, Khayvie Rojas narrated how Arcilla made unwanted sexual advances the night of December 2 when she asked him for a recommendation letter in connection to her application for graduate school.
Rojas said that she and Arcilla initially had a good conversation inside the latter’s LPU office, with the two of them discussing various topics including her career plans. Their conversation went on until around 7PM when the retired ambassador said he wanted to go home already. That’s when things took a turn for the worse:
“We talked for more or less 30 minutes. He stood up and he said he is going home. He asked me if I’m also heading home and where. He said he could drop me off near my place, I agreed to be drop off at Coastal.
We went down the stairs and he went inside the clinic, we saw the guard at Gate 2, he held my elbow and said “Dito kita rarape-pin”. I gave him a quizzical look and said, “Sir?.” Medyo kinabahan na ako nun pero nung nakita ko may tao naman sa loob, naging okay naman ako.
We were alone inside the car. He suddenly said, “You really turn me on”, I was in complete shock and was not able to say anything. He tried to grab my face and said “Pa-kiss nga”, I refused. The driver came in. I was already scared but I thought the Dean will not do any inappropriate behaviour in front of his driver. We’re finally outside Lyceum. The Dean grabbed my hand and said, “Bakit ang lamig ng kamay mo, kinakabahan ka sa akin noh?”, I said “No, sir” and pull my hand back. He got it again.”
A seasoned diplomat, Arcilla has served as a former Philippine ambassador to Bangladesh, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Laos, and Thailand. He also became a member of the United Nations’ Committee of Experts on Afghanistan.
PLEASE LIKE THE FILIPINO SCRIBE ON FACEBOOK!
About Author
All great leaders are after all human. At the end of the day we are still prisoners of our own human weakness. We still eat the same food and defecate in the same toilets.
I know this article will attract lots of former and present Lyceum students. If there is any place in the Philippines where there’s the greatest concentration of young people who aspire to be FSOs that would be the LPU. So let me just casually throw in my blog post with my views on the Foreign Service Exam in case it might be a help to any aspirants. http://dukevillanueva.com/philippine-foreign-service-officers-exam-tips/