Taguig court allows Vhong Navarro to post P1M bail in rape case

The Taguig Regional Trial Court Branch 69 has granted the petition of actor and television host Vhong Navarro to post bail in connection with the rape case filed by model Deniece Cornejo.

In an order dated December 5, 2022, Presiding Judge Loralie Cruz Datahan allowed Navarro to post P1 million bail for his temporary liberty while the court is hearing the case.

“Wherefore, premises considered, the petition for bail is hereby granted. The bail of the accused for his provisional liberty is hereby fixed at one million pesos (P1,000,000.00),” the order read.

According to a "24 Oras" report, Navarro was released from Taguig City Jail's male dormitory around 5:50 p.m. after posting bail. 

Navarro's lawyer, Marie Glen Abraham-Garduque, said that the actor was happy with the development and will now concentrate on his family.

On November 21, Navarro was transferred to the Taguig City Jail from the National Bureau of Investigation facility in compliance with the November 7 order of the court.

In September, Taguig prosecutors filed a case against Navarro over the alleged rape of Cornejo through “force, threat, and intimidation” in January 2014.

Navarro has denied the allegations against him. 

'Inconsistencies'

In granting Navarro's bail petition, the court indicated the inconsistencies in Cornejo's affidavits and her behavior following the incident. 

"At the outset, [the fact] that the complainant executed three complaint affidavits—dated January 29, 2014, February 27, 2014, and October 16, 2015—in connection with this case is not disputed. In all of these affidavits, the complainant gave different versions of the incident," the order stated.

"While in the first and second affidavits there is no mention of any rape that happened on January 17, 2014, the complainant would, in the third affidavit executed more than a year after the incident, narrate in detail how [the] accused supposedly raped her," it said.

"Likewise, while [the] complainant positively claims to have been drugged by the accused, she would also testify that she was not sure about it."

Cornejo also admitted to sending text messages to Navarro after the incident and "did not find anything wrong in preening at herself and giggling, after supposedly having been raped,” it added.

"The information in this case alleges that [the] accused had carnal knowledge with the complainant through force, threat, and intimidation, [as well as] by purposely intoxicating the victim," the court said.

"In her testimony, however, complainant confirmed that [the] accused had no weapon with him at that time, and that she had not been threatened or intimidated by the former, nor [had she been] beaten up by the accused."

The court said the "inconsistencies" in Cornejo's affidavits and testimony were "too material to ignore." —Joviland Rita and Mel Matthew Doctor/AOL/VBL, GMA Integrated News