SC junks rape, acts of lasciviousness charges vs Vhong Navarro

Actor Vhong Navarro can sleep well again.

This as Navarro won another round in his attempts to clear his name as the Supreme Court’s (SC) Third Division dismissed two criminal charges of rape by sexual intercourse and acts of lasciviousness filed by odel eniece Cornejo against him for lack of probable cause.

In a 43-page decision made public on March 13, the High Court reversed and set aside the July and September 2022 rulings of the Court of Appeals (CA) supporting the charges against Navarro, who is Ferdinand Hipolito Navarro, 46, in real life.

In dismissing the charges, the high tribunal said the “CA gravely erred” when it overturned the Department of Justice resolutions that dismissed the charges against Navarro and granted the appeal of model-stylist Deniece Cornejo, who claimed that the actor-host forced himself on her twice in 2014.

“Having determined that the DOJ committed no grave abuse of discretion in a r ing the finding of lack of probable cause against Navarro, the Court, in the interest of justice and fair play, is constrained to dismiss the subject Informations against him,” the High Court stated in its ruling dated February 8 penned by SC Associate Justice Henri Jean Paul Inting.

SC Third Division Justices Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, Samuel Gaerlan, Japar Dimaampao, and Maria Filomena Singh concurred in the ruling.

In 2018 and 2020, the Department of Justice dismissed Cornejo’s complaints on the ground that the allegations suffered credibility issues but the CA Fourteenth Division reversed the rulings, saying “it falls upon the trial court to determine who between Navarro and

Cornejo speaks the truth.”

The ruling of the appeals court resulted in Navarro’s temporary detention at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) before being transferred to the Taguig City jail in November last year. He was released in December after posting a P1 million bail.

After his release, Navarro returned to the daily noontime show “It’s Showtime” on the Kapamilya Channel hosted by Vice Ganda.

“Under the circumstances, the CA simply had no basis to reverse the prosecutor s finding of lack of probable cause. On the contrary, it is the CA that disregarded such parameters when it substituted its own judgment for that of the prosecutor s finding of lack of probable cause against Navarro,” the high court ruling stated.

The SC also noted that Deniese Cornejo’s accusations involved “glaring and manifest inconsistencies” that are “not trivial, minor, or inconsequential.”

“Indeed, no amount of skillful or artful deportment, manner of speaking, or portrayal in a subsequent court proceeding could supplant Cornejo’s manifestly inconsistent and highly deficient, doubtful, and unclear accounts of her supposed harrowing experience in the hands of Navarro,” the decision stated.

“By reason of the executive nature of this prosecutorial prerogative, courts cannot compel the prosecution of a person against whom the public prosecutor has found no su cient evidence to establish probable cause for indictment. Courts cannot substitute their own judgment for that which is fundamentally in the domain of the Executive branch,” it explained.

The only exception, it said as reported by ABS-CBN and other media in Manila, is when there is grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of the prosecutors.

But the high court said the prosecutor s findings appear to have been arrived at objectively” and according to the legal yardsticks of how to conduct a preliminary investigation.

“Prosecutors are duty-bound to make a realistic judicial appraisal of the merits of the case during preliminary investigation,” the court ruled.

The SC Third Division enumerated all the inconsistencies in Cornejo’s affidavits against avarro he alleged in her first co plaint that nothing happened on January 17, 2014, but claimed in her second and third complaints that Navarro raped her.

She claimed Navarro raped her on anuary 22, 2 1 , in her first co plaint but failed to allege it in her second complaint only to say in her third complaint that there was an attempt to rape her.

The first a davit was executed on January 29, 2014, the second on February 27, 2014, and the third on October 16, 2015.

“As underscored by the DOJ, a preliminary investigation is not a hit-or- iss endeavor where one could file complaints one after another until he or she gets the desired results. Justice and fair play dictate that Cornejo should not be permitted to materially change her theory in her two previous complaints in a deliberate attempt to address or rectify the weaknesses of her theories, as pointed out by the prosecutor in the dismissal thereof, or worse, supplant or add new material allegations,” the High Court said.

The High Court added that while there is deference to a trial court s findings as to the credibility of a witness, it does not apply to “inconsistent allegations which are too glaring and manifest to be missed.”

Cornejo’s inconsistencies, it said, were “not trivial, minor or inconsequential.”

The high court relied largely on the complaints of Cornejo in resolving the cases, although it did note the lack of physical in uries during the first eeting when she supposedly physically resisted Navarro’s advances.

According to the court, Cornejo tried to explain this by claiming in her third complaint that she took a sip from the glass of wine, which she did not allege in her first 2 co plaints.

The court however did not even go to the extent of discussing CCTV footage on January 22, 2014, from Cornejo’s condominium unit which showed Navarro stepping out of the elevator to go to Corne o s unit at 21 actual ti e 1 3 p while Corne o stepped inside the elevator at 22 3 actual ti e 1 p or around a inute after Navarro stepped out.

“Under the circumstances, the CA simply had no basis to reverse the prosecutor s finding of lack of probable cause. On the contrary, it is the CA that disregarded such parameters when it substituted its own judgment for that of the prosecutor s finding of lack of probable cause against Navarro,” it concluded.

Cornejo alleged that on Jan. 22, 2014, Navarro pinned her down and attempted to rape her at her condominium in Taguig City.

In a subsequent complaint, the model claimed that Navarro had assaulted her once more on Jan. 17, 2014. A third complaint was also submitted, detailing the events of the two incidents.

Navarro also earlier accused Cornejo, along with the group of businessman Cedric Lee, of grave coercion for allegedly forcing him to falsely admit that he raped the model-stylist. He was also attacked by the group, leaving him with multiple injuries. (Jennifer True Santos)