The Supreme Court has suspended lawyer and law professor Cresencio Co Untian Jr for making sexual advances to his students at Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro.
The SC en banc suspended Untian from law practice for 5 years, and from teaching law in any school for 10 years – a graver penalty than the two-year suspension previously imposed on him by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP).
This is the first time that the High Court “was required to penalize a law professor for sexually harassing his students,” said concurring Justice Marvic Leonen, who also said that the professor should have been disbarred instead of just suspended.
Complaints
Three female students of Xavier University filed a complaint against Untian for sexual advances.
One complained that Untian sent her romantic messages, love notes, and even invited her to go to Camiguin, which she declined.
The other complained that the professor showed her a naked photo of a woman who looked like her, and teased her about it within hearing distance of other students.
The third student said that she asked the professor to repeat the question during recitation by saying, “Sir, come again?” Untian supposedly responded: “You want me to come again? I have not come the first time and don’t you know that it took me 5 minutes to come, and you want me to come again?”
In his explanation to the Court, Untian did not deny the incidents but said they were inaccurate accounts.