Cristy Ramos: women who expose harassment seen as troublemakers

by Nazvi Careem, South China Morning Post, 4 Oct 2020

Cristina Ramos, in her role as AFC match commissioner, was inspecting identity documents of the Philippines men’s football team before their friendly against visitors Malaysia in February, 2012.

What should have been a routine procedure turned ugly within minutes of Ramos entering the changing room. The next day, Ramos filed sexual harassment charges against two players – one for alluding to her bra size and another for suggestively wearing nothing but his underwear during the inspection while his teammates laughed aloud.

The investigation lasted months and involved numerous back-and-forth arguments and counterpoints. The players were eventually banned for one game but an appeals committee suspended the bans “because they still had international commitments”.

Eight years later, Ramos – the daughter of former Philippines President Fidel Ramos and the country’s Olympic (POC) chief from 1996-1999 – says she has moved on. But the fight for women to preserve their dignity in a male-dominated sporting landscape continues.

“I felt highly betrayed as it happened with the Philippine team, which was supposed to be a team I would have natural affinity to since I’m also from the Philippines,” Ramos, whose husband was part of the faction that ousted her as POC president, told the Post. “It was so disgusting that these supposed heroes of Philippine football and sports idols didn’t know how to respect and behave properly.

“The PFF was protecting [the Azkals] because they were at the height of their popularity then. And I was always being portrayed as the troublemaker in Philippine sports, the spoiled brat bitchy daughter of [ex-President Fidel] et cetera et cetera. It was all a demolition job to discredit me.

“In the end, I just had to believe in myself, that what I was doing was the right thing to do. My family and friends were very supportive of me and in the end they’re really the ones you fall back on in times like that.

“Actually I’m also highly disappointed that AFC and PFF were not more proactive in my case. They could’ve used my case to formulate an anti-sexual harassment policy. But no, they just wanted to sweep it under the rug, like it didn’t happen.”

Ramos, a former Philippines national skipper who played at the 1981 AFC Championship and 1985 Southeast Asian Games, had been a qualified match commissioner since 2003, taking charge of dozens of games for Fifa, AFC and other bodies.

And it was not her first encounter with the male football ego. In 2009, during an AFC Champions League match in Adelaide, she was inspecting the pitch when an Australian player who was training asked her if she liked what she saw.

“He was trying to be fresh with me and was referring to his looks,” Ramos said. “I said ‘No, I don’t like what I’m seeing. Four of the bulbs [on the pitch] are out’.”

No doubt, a male inspector would have been left alone to do his job, but Ramos remains an advocate for having qualified officials – male or female – assigned to such roles.

“I think football has to remove the mindset of men’s matches should be officiated and handled by men officials and ditto for the women,” she said. “A blatant example is using men to perform VAR duties for men’s matches. Fifa could’ve used women referees to handle VAR duties, even just one female a match, in the last World Cup and that would’ve given a clear signal that Fifa truly believes and is proactive in levelling the playing field, so to speak, in gender equality.

“I would’ve wanted to see the likes of top German woman referee Bibiana Steinhaus even minimally as a VAR in the last men’s World Cup. She officiates in the men’s Bundesliga.

“I believe women should be allowed the opportunity to be involved and actively participate in the game, whether they be match commissioners, ball kids, groundskeepers, media officers, medical personnel and others. Qualification, of course, will always be the top criteria and gender shouldn’t be held against the person, provided the person is qualified.”

Ramos, a karate expert, became the first female president of the POC in 1996 but her reign lasted only three years after she was forced one year before the end of her term. It was a conflict that had deep personal ramifications because among her opponents was her husband, Godofredo Jalasco, who was then the Basketball Association of Philippines chief.

“He sided with my opponents,” said Ramos, who has three children with Jalasco. “He never bothered to discuss the issues with me. Whatever happened to ‘for better, for worse’?. It was really tough for me since both my personal life and professional life were inextricably connected and the problems happened almost simultaneously.

“I knew I was on the right side since I based my actions and decisions on universally accepted moral and ethical principles and legal bases. No matter how much my opponents twisted the issues they still couldn’t reverse the issues based on fact. That’s why they had to resort to dirty tactics, gaslighting and bullying and it took them several months to remove me from my position because they had no sound basis, only that I was a bullheaded, qualified woman who knew her stuff and I wouldn’t play their game.”

Ramos said no matter what she did, she would always be seen as the privileged daughter of a former president.

“This is in spite of me establishing women’s football in the Philippines, having a Master’s degree in Sport and Athletic Administration, training and playing as team captain of the Philippine women’s national team for six years, earning my brown belt in karate and PADI [scuba diving] certificate.”

With regards to her sexual harassment case, she said: “The victims, especially if they’re women, are always portrayed as the guilty party or the bad person in the picture, that we’re cheap, sluts and flirty. In my sexual harassment case people said that I deserved to be sexually harassed because I entered the team changing room.

“That I was a bitch. That I was a has-been who just wanted attention. That I didn’t know what I was talking about because I was too ugly to be sexually harassed. That I should be reported to AFC because I was a bad match commissioner without them citing any incidents or situations.

“Really in the end I was hoping that the Philippine Football Federation would give a strong message against sexual harassment, that there would be zero tolerance for that. They didn’t. And at the very least come up with an anti-sexual harassment policy. Nothing.”