Infamous Visayan homosexual Jude Bacalso explains viral photo of him allegedly having wait staff stand for two hours

By Edward Era Barbacena 

The Visayan homosexual who all of a sudden becomes infamous Jude Bacalso has explained the viral photo which shows him allegedly berating a member of the wait staff of a restaurant in a Cebu Mall. In the photo, Bacalso was seated while the wait staff was standing.  

The Cebu-based personality and LGBTQ+ community member explained to GMA News Online on the phone that he actually asked the waiter if he wanted to sit down and relax. "He shook his head and remained standing," Bacalso said. "I didn't say 'stay there.' I also didn't demand."

The Visayan homosexual TV personality Bacalso is under fire for allegedly berating a restaurant wait staff for calling him "sir."

But Bacalso acknowledged "It was an honest mistake on his [the wait staff's] part." 

"There was no malice. I knew there was no malice. So I took it as an opportunity to educate,"

It was while he was "giving gender sensitivity information to the waiter" that a netizen snapped a photo of the two.

Bacalso added, "It was a calm conversation between us," adding he was giving information "not in a loud and berating manner."

On Facebook Monday, Bacalso issued a statement, where he emphasized "that I did not demand that the waiter stand for the whole length of time."

"It was he who chose to stand in front of me as we waited for input from management, who I attempted to contact," she said.

According to Bacalso, he had already sat down with the restaurant's management to "quietly settle the matter." The waiter he had a disagreement with was not present.

In his stead was "a crew member and the store supervisor" who were at the scene last Sunday. "After each one of us aired our sides, I am happy to share that we have agreed to pursue together more inclusive practices in the restaurant," Bacalso said.

He also made sure to say sorry "to the rest of the staff who are disheartened by the way things have escalated, as well as to the customers present at that time."

"This is a huge chunk of humble pie that I must ingest, because I have erred," he added. "May we start here with, as the supervisor pointed out, an uphill path to reconciliation."

In his statement, Bacalso acknowledged "I could have done with a little measure of kindness, sadly quite absent in the ruckus this has all unnecessarily created when it was made public without our knowledge."

"I made a personal apology to the group present, and requested if I may do so for the concerned waiter. I am also making it very public with this post, as it has become quite public fodder," he said.

Bacalso's statement has already been shared more than 4.6K times and has attracted over 5K comments. It has generated 28K reactions as of writing.

Meanwhile, the Cebu restaurant, Ulli's Streets of Asia, has released a couple of statements following the "altercation." On Monday, Ulli's said they had spoken with their staff "educating our people and place their welfare of utmost priority."  

"Likewise, we express our apologies to our guests. Your concerns are well noted and will help us move forward towards a better customer experience," Ulli's said, adding "discrimination has no place in our restaurant."