Philippine actor Dustin Yu recalls sexual harassment by policeman at MRT

MANILA: Amid celebrities speaking up against sexual harassment, Kapuso Dustin Yu (pic) recounted his own experience of having suffered a policeman’s inappropriate behaviour while they were inside an MRT train.

Yu first talked about the incident in a November 2023 interview, revealing he was only 18 years old when it transpired.

“My first time to ride the MRT, and I was just holding the metal bars. And then there was this policeman — in his uniform — who inserted his hand inside my pocket,” he recalled at the time, as per Philippine Entertainment Portal.

“I trembled because he was a policeman, and I was just a kid then. He really groped my private parts. It took me a long time to recover from that experience, about a year and a half,” he said.

Yu spoke again about the incident at the “Regal Legacy” event on Saturday (Sept 21), after he was asked if the recent sexual abuse case of fellow actor Sandro Muhlach reminded him of his traumatic experience.

“I’ve just thought about it. I have heard about what happened to Sandro. I feel for him. I don’t know the whole story, but I really feel for him. I hope that didn’t happen to him, Yu said, as quoted by Bandera.

Yu added that out of fear, he was not able to report the incident to the police. He then noted that if such harassment were to happen to him again, he would speak up and fight for himself.

“I already know what is right and wrong, and I have learned from that experience. I will never allow that to happen again,” he stressed.

Yu is best known for his acting roles in the TV series “Black Rider” and “Mano po Legacy: The Family Fortune,” and in the film “Shake Rattle & Roll Extreme.”

INQUIRER.net reached out to the Philippine National Police for comment, but has not received a reply yet as of this writing. – Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN