Student cries foul over unsolicited photos of women taken by man on bike

A 22-year-old student of University of the Philippines-Diliman cried foul after she discovered that a professional cyclist took unsolicited photos of women on the streets while he rode his bike.

According to Kim Obel, she has seen selfies of the cyclist with women of different ages in several areas. In the now deleted photos, some of the women could be seen walking on the streets with their companions, while some were even in their cars and tricycles minding their own business.

All of them appeared to not know they were being photographed without their consent.

Kim told GMA News Online that she found out about it after a video compilation of the cyclist’s photos reached her Facebook timeline.

“May page, nag-compile ng pictures ng girls, unsolicited selfies na walang paalam,” she said. “All of them are minors showing some skin, tapos mga dalaga … kinompile ’yun. ’Yung video na ’yun…parang ginawang collection.”

The student said the video was even captioned as a “girls collection” of the cyclist.

“’Di naman normal mag-picture ng random na tao tapos ipo-post mo just to gain clout kasi obvious naman target minor na babae na nagsho-show ng skin,” said Kim. “Tapos some other people simple nakasakay sa sasakyan, nasa tricycle may kasamang bata. Napaka-alarming.”

What’s more alarming was that the posts that used to be open to public got cheers from many netizens who had shown support for the cyclist’s acts.

“Naka-public ’yung page na ’yun. Deleted na ’yung video but a lot of people nakita na ’yung video and a lot of them supported pa nga,” she said. Some would even comment, “wow, ang sexy. Wow ang sarap,” she added.

Kim also worried about the minors who might see his posts, think there’s nothing wrong with them, and do the same.

“What if ’yun ’yung mag-cause ng much worse na acts? Mag-start ng rape cases or pagmo-molestiya, parang ganoon ’yung worry ko,” she said.

Because she was concerned, Kim shared the video on her timeline and condemned the act.

“I captioned there na hindi material ang babae para gawing katawan lang. Hindi niyo ba alam may kaso na regarding sa harassment sa mga kababaihan sa kalsada?” she said.

Kim knew who the cyclist was since she trained with him in the past as a biker herself, but they weren’t Facebook friends.

Although she approached the police with her lawyer to file a complaint, the attorney said that unless the women in the photos came forward, the case wouldn’t prosper.

“Di namin kilala ’yung mga babae. Malay ba nila may picture sila na ganoon,” she pointed out.

According to Kim, the situation is even more worrisome now because more and more people are using bicycles amid the coronavirus pandemic.

She herself would use her bike whenever she had to deliver items to her customers.

“Alam naman nating ngayong GCQ main transportation ay bicycle so a lot of men and women gumagamit ng bisikleta,” she said. “Ngayong main transportation very prevalent yung ganitong cases pero unreported … Maraming cases na ganito na hindi natin alam na nababalita diyan.”

For now, Kim has an ongoing project with the Philippine National Police and bike groups in Metro Manila to raise awareness and create seminars on pedestrian and cyclist harassment.

“Itong act na ’to, hindi tama,” she said. “’Yun na lang for me, ’yung maging vocal ’yung kababaihan na kung may harassment na ginawa sa kanila, pwede silang pumunta sa PNP o sa kinauukulan.”

Just last year, the “Bawal Bastos” or Safe Spaces Act was signed into law, penalizing wolf-whistling, cat-calling, and other forms of harassment in public places due to one’s sex, gender or sexual orientation. – RC, GMA News