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CA orders Taguig prosecutor to file rape charges vs. actor Vhong Navarro


The Court of Appeals (CA) has ordered the City Prosecutor of Taguig City to file rape and acts of lasciviousness charges against TV host and actor Ferdinand “Vhong” Navarro on complaints filed by model-stylist Deniece Milinette Cornejo.

In a 26-page resolution dated July 21, 2022, CA’s 14th Division reversed and set aside the resolutions issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on April 30, 2018, and July 14, 2020.

The ruling was penned by CA Associate Justice Florencio Mamauag Jr. with Associate Justices Victoria Isabel Paredes and Mary Charlene Hernandez-Azura concurring.

GMA News Online has contacted Navarro and his lawyer for comment but has yet to receive their replies.

In a resolution dated April 30, 2018, the DOJ denied the petition for review filed by Cornejo, which challenged a September 2017 resolution that found no probable cause to press charges against Navarro in court.

Cornejo had alleged that Navarro sexually abused her on January 17 and 22, 2014. It was on January 22, 2014 when Navarro was mauled by the group of businessman Cedric Lee, resulting in the actor's hospitalization for multiple injuries.

The DOJ maintained there was no sufficient evidence to warrant Navarro's indictment, saying it was "not impressed" by Cornejo's additional pieces of evidence: two previous rape complaints filed by two other women, a published statement of another, and an alleged date-rape drug.

Apart from procedural flaws in the evidence filing, the DOJ noted that even an assumption that Navaro has the "propensity to rape women" does not cure Cornejo's "incredible account of the incident, especially her belated, much belated, account of her having been raped" by the actor on Jan. 17, 2014.

The CA, however, rejected Navarro’s contention that the present petition must be dismissed for being the wrong remedy.

"It was erroneous for the DOJ to deny Cornejo’s petition for review on the ground that her statements in the complaint-affidavits are inconsistent and incredible. In this regard, it bears to stress that the determination of probable cause does not depend on the validity or merits of a party’s accusation or defense or on the admissibility or veracity of testimonies presented," the CA said.

The court also said issues of credibility should be adjudged during the trial proper. 

"Ultimately, it falls upon the trial court to determine who between Navarro and Cornejo speaks the truth. Cornejo decries attempted rape on the night of January 22, 2014 while Navarro denies any wrongdoing on his part," CA said.

"We reiterate once more that the preliminary investigation is not the proper venue to rule on the respondent’s guilt or innocence," it added.

The court also took note of Navarro’s admission that he and Cornejo had consensual oral sex on January 17, 2014.

"Given the peculiar nature of rape, it almost always presents a ‘he said, she said’ scenario which leaves the trial court the task to decide whom between the private complainant or the accused should it believe. On one hand, justice must be rendered to a rape victim bearing in mind that she is physically, psychologically, emotionally and socially scarred," the CA said.

Further, CA said the admissibility or inadmissibility of the parties’ evidence should be ventilated before the trial court during the trial proper and not in the preliminary investigation.

"There need not be an inquiry into whether there is sufficient evidence to procure a conviction. What is merely required is probability of guilt, the determination of which does not call for the application of rules or standards of proof that a judgment of conviction requires after trial on the merits," it said. —KG, GMA News

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