Philippine gov’t official caught having sex, cheating with secretary on Zoom

Higher authorities have removed two government officials from their positions as Barangay Captain and Treasurer for having sex while conducting a Zoom meeting with other officials. Captain Jesus Estil of Fatima Dos barangay in the province of Cavite and the unnamedTreasurer have not shown their faces at the government office in their area since the incident.

Both Estil and the treasurer are allegedly married to other people.

In the Philippines, the Barangay Captain is the grassroots leader, who interact daily with the citizens in . The man, who was the captain, was seen on video with a woman, the treasurer and his alleged secretary, having sex in front of other officials from the same barangay.

What did the government officials do in the zoom video?

According a viral video that has circulated uncontrollably online, Estil was in a Zoom call with other officials from the same locality,

The video showed the man, who was wearing a white shirt, and the woman in a neon green top, in the same room while others were online in the Zoom meeting. The man then looked like he had turned off the camera for the meeting, or he may have adjusted something on the laptop. The two were unaware that a second camera was still recording.

The misconduct happened in the Barangay Hall.

Then, as the Zoom meeting continued, the two had dropped their trousers and began to have sex while the meeting went on, on the far side of the room.

A staff member in the meeting allegedly recorded the video. The video went viral when it was uploaded online for other barangay citizens to see.

What did higher officials do?

The Philippine Department of Interior and Local Government or DILG said that an investigation is ongoing. A department spokesman said, “I saw on social media that this sort of event happened in Dasmariñas, Cavite. This is very unfortunate because the other members of the barangay council saw this, and at the same time, the event happened inside the barangay hall.”

The spokesperson continued, “We immediately ordered our regional office to investigate the possible violations in this incident because this is a conduct of unbecoming of a public official. We have a code of conduct of public officials and we think there are provisions there that were violated.”

Other officials have called the video evidence of “grave misconduct.”

Citizens called for resignation

According to a report by Asia One, citizens of the Barangay wrote a petition for Estil to step down, saying, “We are united in our desire to remove our [village captain] because of what he did,” one villager told reporters.

“It is not right as the leader of our barangay. He should be like a father to us and lead by example to his constituents.”

Estil has apologized to his constituents, and the treasurer has also done so, but higher officials said that it is not that easy, after what they had done.

A similar event happened in Brazil, where a government official meeting discussing food for students turned into a scandal. The man was seen to have moved away from the camera as well, and appeared unclothed as he had sex with an unknown woman. Reports said that the person was not an elected official.

The chairperson of the meeting continued despite the scandal, ignoring the events in that one feed. It is unclear if the person in that particular meeting has been punished or reprimanded