Statement of Miss Earth on sexual harassment claims

Carousel Productions, which organizes the annual Miss Philippines Earth and Miss Earth beauty pageants, said on Thursday, November 8, that it will not tolerate any offensive or indecent acts or behavior to be committed towards or against any of its delegates and staff members.

This after Lorraine Schuck, Executive Vice President, Carousel Productions, issued a statement following claims that candidates from Canada, England and Guam of the recent Miss Earth beauty contest in Manila were allegedly sexually harassed by one of the pageant’s sponsors.

The full statement:

“Delegates of Miss Earth are divided into 3 groups with each group having 3 Team Managers and 3  Philippines National Police detail;

“At the very start of the pageant, the Team Managers brief all the delegates on several matters including, but not limited to, what their activities will be during their stay, the need to rest and sleep early, how to look after their personal stuff like wallets and telephones when they are out, to not believe or ignore people they meet who claim to be one of the pageant’s judges and, most important, to report immediately to their Team Manager or PNP detail if they have any problems whatsoever especially on their safety and security;

“In a function last October 14, Miss Canada and Miss England reported to their Team Managers that they felt like being sexually harassed by one of the function’s sponsor.  The moment the office told me about the incident, I called the Team Managers immediately and ask them what happened. Right there and then I told the Team Manager to give the phone to Miss England and then to Miss Canada so I could talk to them and find out what happened. I assured them that the Miss Earth organization does not condone nor tolerate any rude or immoral behaviour towards the delegates by sponsors or anybody for that matter. I IMMEDIATELY instructed our Project Director to ban the alleged perpetrator from all further functions and events. I reminded the Team Managers and Police Security detail to be more vigilant in making sure that none of the candidates experience this unfortunate incident again;

“Subsequently, I requested ALL the delegates to submit a written statement to me to enable me to find out directly from them if they experienced a similar incident so we could take appropriate action. I also wanted to find out if any of the other delegates could corroborate the complaint of Miss Canada and Miss England so we could use the statements to help the two in case they decided to file a case against the alleged harasser.  We were ready to support the two in any action they may have wished to take against the individual who offended them. Unfortunately, instead of working together with us on this matter they opted to go to social media and discredit and disparage the organization;

“The Miss Earth organization DOES NOT CONFISCATE passports of delegates. In the 18 years we’ve been doing this pageant, there had been several instances of candidates misplacing or losing their passports.  We hold the delegates passports for safekeeping and to facilitate their check-in for their domestic flights and hotel accommodations. The delegates are free to keep their passports if they want to.  We make them sign a Waiver that should they lose or misplace their passport the organization would not be responsible for it. Incidentally, Miss Liberia who was supposed to fly back to her country last November 5 was not allowed to fly because she had misplaced her passport. She had to stay overnight in the airport because she was not allowed to re-enter the country and go back to the hotel without a passport;

“The Miss Earth organization has always and continues to look after the safety, security and welfare of its candidates.  It has not and will never condone nor tolerate any offensive or indecent acts or behaviour to be committed towards or against any of its delegates and staff,”  the statement read. - ROBERT REQUINTINA