Court affirms bail for Cedric Lee, 2 others in Vhong Navarro case

The Taguig Regional Trial Court Branch 153 has denied the bid of the government prosecutors to reverse an earlier ruling granting bail to businessman Cedric Lee and two others in connection with the serious illegal detention case filed by television host Vhong Navarro.

In a three-page order, Taguig RTC Branch 153 Judge Mariam G. Bien said the prosecutors failed to raise new issues that would warrant a reversal of the Sept. 12, 2014, decision of RTC Branch 271 Judge Paz Esperanza Cortes.

“No new and substantial issues have been raised by the prosecution that would merit the court to rule otherwise in its favor. There is no more need for the court to belabor and discuss in this order what has been already been extensively discussed in the assailed order,” the court said in an order dated June 24 but made public on Wednesday.

Aside from Cedric Lee, Deniece Cornejo and Simeon “Zimmer” Raz were able to post P500,000 bail following Cortes’ decision, which said that the prosecution failed to provide strong evidence that the illegal detention case was “actually serious.”

But the Taguig court said the prosecution could still present its evidence in court because “what has been resolved in the petition for bail is not the merits of the case but only whether or not the accused are entitled to bail.”

“It has not yet gone to the heart of the case. Thus, the prosecution would still be allowed to present its evidence-in-chief to support the charge of serious illegal detention against all accused.”

The case went to Branch 153 after Judge Cortes inhibited from the case.