Taguig prosecutors file rape case vs. Vhong Navarro

The Taguig City Prosecutor's Office has filed a rape case against TV host and actor Ferdinand “Vhong” Navarro with the Taguig Regional Trial Court over the alleged rape of model-stylist Deniece Cornejo.

In an information dated August 31, prosecutors accused Navarro of raping the victim through “force, threat, and intimidation” and by purposely intoxicating her on January 17, 2014.

Meanwhile, the Taguig RTC ordered holding off the raffling of the case until Navarro’s motion for reconsideration and urgent motion for the issuance of a status quo ante order before the Court of Appeals are resolved.

In April 2018, the Department of Justice 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.

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.

However, the DOJ resolution was set aside by the CA last month as it ordered the City Prosecutor of Taguig to file rape and acts of lasciviousness charges against Navarro.

The Court said that “preliminary investigation is not the proper venue to rule on the respondent’s guilt or innocence.”

For their part, Atty. Alma Mallonga, Navarro’s lawyer, said they were “very surprised” by the CA resolution.

“Yes, to be very honest, we were very surprised. It is the case that the dismissal of the rape allegations had been consistently dismissed multiple times,” Mallonga said in an interview on ANC Friday.

She said it is also clear that the DOJ did not act arbitrarily or with hostility in dismissing the charges against Navarro as the basis of the dismissal can be found on the records.

“Was the DOJ wrong in dismissing the January alleged rape? Of course not,” she later said.

Further, she said Cornejo had previously said that no rape occurred on January 17 and later changed her story “when there was already a case filed against her.”

“It’s an afterthought, it’s incredible, and as correctly found by the Department of Justice, it is not consistent with human behavior,” she said.—AOL, GMA News