Cedric Lee kissing Deniece Cornejo shown in new CCTV footage

Legal counsel of actor-host Vhong Navarro released new CCTV footage that shows businessman Cedric Lee kissing Deniece Cornejo as they stepped into an elevator of the condominium where Navarro sustained various injuries. (Basahin sa Filipino)

 

The disclosure of the video Thursday came on the eve of a Department of Justice (DOJ) preliminary hearing on the Navarro-Cornejo-Lee cases.

 

In a report on GMA News' evening newscasts “State of the Nation” and “Saksi”, Navarro's lawyer, Atty. Alma Mallonga, said the January 23 video shows that Lee and Cornejo “are not just friends.”

 

In the video, Lee kisses Cornejo on both cheeks of her face.

 

Mallonga said they got the video from the National Bureau of Investigation.


 

 

The all-female panel of prosecutors handling the consolidated complaints stemming from the incident denied a request by model-stylist Deniece Cornejo to defer the February 14 preliminary probe.

 

"The panel will not grant [the] request for postponement," Prosecutor General Claro Arellano, head of the National Prosecution Service which is under the DOJ, told GMA News Online on Thursday.

 

Cornejo, through legal counsel Howard Callega, requested the DOJ hearing to be reset because she was set to attend another hearing at a Taguig court on the same day for a temporary protection order she is seeking against Navarro.

 

Navarro's camp had branded the Cornejo camp's move as a dilatory tactic.

 

The consolidated cases included the rape complaint filed with the Taguig City Prosecutor's Office by Cornejo against Navarro, who was mauled by friends of Cornejo led by Cedric Lee inside the Forbeswood Condominium in Taguig City.

 

Navarro filed charges of illegal detention, serious physical injuries, grave threats, grave coercion, illegal arrest, and blackmail.

 

Navarro, through his legal counsel Alma Mallonga, had already said last week he might not be showing up on the first day of the DOJ preliminary probe, explaining that he is still so “emotionally and physically damaged” that he could not face his attackers just yet.  — ELR, GMA News