Can’t a woman ride a bus without any pervs harassing her?
Facebook user Karol Permejo shared a now-viral video of a man who was caught exposing his penis to her on a bus ride in Makati City on Saturday.
In another Facebook post, Permejo said that her video was taken down by the social media platform after being flagged for nudity.
In the deleted post, she said that she just got off work and was riding the bus to get to the Buendia LRT station in Makati City.
She said that the bus was jampacked and that there was a man was standing on the aisle near where she was seated.
“There was something rubbing against my skin, I ignored it because I thought it was a bag or it was just unintentional since the bus was packed [with commuters],” she said in Filipino.
“When I glanced over, I saw this asshole’s penis out [of his pants]. This was what was touching my skin. What an animal!”
The video, which was reuploaded by a Twitter user with the handle @joshuapaciben_, shows the man’s penis dangling from his unzipped jeans.
“Son of a bitch, you’re a pervert. Look, everyone, he has his penis out,” Permejo shouted in Filipino as some people turn to look.
The man then hid his peen by moving his backpack to his crotch before quickly zipping up his fly.
“Look. See, he already zipped it up,” Permejo shouted. “Why are you showing your penis?” she asked.
The man, clearly shocked by the woman’s continuous stream of shouts, mumbled a weak apology in Filipino: “I’m sorry. [Stop it], it’s almost Christmas.”
“Oh, then why were you exposing your penis?” Permejo asked him, exasperated.
“It isn’t out anymore,” he said, before apologizing again.
Permejo said in the deleted Facebook post that the bus driver and the conductor helped her by not letting the man out, but that he unfortunately still escaped after pressing the button for the bus door to open.
“When the man got off the bus, there were vendors outside that beat him up. Thank you to those vendors that called the police who responded swiftly. They really searched for him, but they just couldn’t find him anymore because there were a lot of places he could slip through in the area,” she added.
“I was shaking in fear [during the incident], it just looked like I wasn’t. I was scared because he might slap me while I was shouting. He was a large guy. [What an] animal,” she ended her post.
The video reuploaded on Twitter has been viewed over 1.84million times and retweeted 16,000 times.
Some netizens such as @SeoyoungSshi shared their own experiences.
@SeoyoungShi wrote: “[I got] teary eyed watching this. One time, the guy next to me inside a tricycle was jacking off but I couldn’t say anything because he seemed drunk and I was afraid he’d hurt me. [I wish] I could get this same courage if I ever encounter another asshole during [a] commute.”
@fallingMangoes shared: “This happened to my friends and I (sic) also!! We didn’t want to make a scene and were afraid of getting hurt so we just walked away. I’m happy she got to stand up for herself and take action because we didn’t and we regret it.”
@nz_vinoya wrote: “Why is it that the other passengers seem angrier at the woman? What if they were the ones being harassed? It’s obvious from the woman’s voice that she wants to cry, that she’s scared. But because no one stood up for her, she fought for herself on her own.”
“Chop that [man’s] dick off!!!” said an angry Twitter user with the handle @kotsEmEr.
@chikkiquev stated: “This is infuriating. Good thing there was footage at least no matter how much he denies it, there was proof. And good thing the woman didn’t let him just leave. ‘It’s Christmas’? You are the ones who have no boundaries for your sexual harassment. You weren’t even ashamed to use ‘It’s Christmas’ [as an excuse].”
Have you ever experienced sexual harassment while commuting? Leave a comment below or tweet us @CoconutsManila.
