Timeline: Vhong Navarro’s decade-long legal battle

File photos of Deniece Cornejo, Vhong Navarro and Cedric Lee. INQUIRER

After a 10-year legal battle, Vhong Navarro finally prevailed in the serious illegal detention case he filed against businessman Cedric Lee, model Deniece Cornejo, and two other co-accused, after the Taguig Regional Trial Court handed a guilty verdict that earned them 40 years imprisonment.

Here’s a quick rundown of what went down in the decade-long trial that became the talk of the town and garnered a media circus over the years.

January 22, 2014

Ferdinand “Vhong” Navarro stirred media frenzy and captured the nation’s interest after reports came out that he was mauled and needed immediate medical attention after becoming a victim of an alleged extortion scheme devised by Deniece Cornejo and businessman Cedric Lee at a condominium unit in The Fort, BGC. 

Navarro claimed that he was severely attacked by Lee and his other companions namely his sister Bernice Lee, Ferdinand Guerrero, Simeon “Zimmer” Raz, a certain alias “Mike,” and two more unidentified suspects.

However, Cornejo’s camp asserted that Navarro sustained his injuries after Lee and others caught him attempting to rape Cornejo, who was 22-year-old at the time.

Vhong Navarro beaten up and detained.

January 28, 2014

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed a complaint with the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Cornejo, Lee, and six others involved in the alleged extortion and mauling of the TV host-actor. 

The complaint charges included serious illegal detention, serious physical injuries, grave threats, grave coercion, unlawful arrest, and threatening to publish and offering to prevent such publication for compensation. 

READ: Explainer: Serious illegal detention for ransom, what is it?

The following day, January 29, 2014, Cornejo filed her first rape complaint against Navarro, followed by her second complaint dated February 27, 2014. 

However, Cornejo’s first complaint was dismissed by DOJ on April 10, 2014 citing that the complainant’s narrative “demonstrates physical improbability,” explaining that “it is extremely difficult to comprehend how such a scenario of shouting, struggling, and running to the lobby could have escaped the ears of the people in the neighboring units or in the halls of the said condominium.”

April 11, 2014

The Taguig RTC Branch 271 issued a warrant of arrest for Lee, Cornejo, and the six others who have been charged with serious illegal detention and grave coercion over the mauling of Navarro. 

On April 26, 2014, Lee and Raz were arrested in Eastern Samar and were put on trial four days after. On the other hand, Lee reportedly “gave himself up voluntarily.”

On May 5, 2014 , Cornejo voluntarily surrendered to the Philippine National Police (PNP) and filed her petition for bail on serious illegal detention, a non-bailable offense.

July 11, 2014

Taguig prosecutors dismissed the second rape complaint of Cornejo vs. Navarro, asserting that if Navarro had raped Cornejo on January 17, “she wouldn’t have invited him to her condominium unit on January 22.”

The next month, on August 6, 2014, after being held in custody at the NBI, Lee and Raz were transferred to Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.

Meanwhile, Taguig RTC denied Cornejo’s petition to stop her transfer to the city jail. Cornejo, at the time, was detained at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Camp Crame.

September 14, 2014 

Taguig RTC allowed Cornejo, Lee, and Raz to post bail for the charges filed against them by Navarro. 

In a statement, the “It’s Showtime” host’s lawyer questioned the court’s decision and attested to rectify the ruling. 

“We are shocked by the news that the court has granted bail. We are just now securing a copy of the resolution. We do not know why bail was granted. We want to know the reasons adduced by the court for this purpose. We will question the resolution, and we will pursue all the remedies that are available to rectify the situation,” the lawyer said at the time.

On September 16, 2014, Lee and Raz were released from custody. Followed by Cornejo’s release two days after. The three posted P500,000 bail each.

October 16, 2015

Cornejo filed a third complaint against Navarro for rape (allegedly took place on January 17, 2014) and attempted rape (allegedly took place on January 22, 2014).

On September 6, 2017, the said third rape was junked by the Prosecutor General, noting that the “complainant suffers from a very serious credibility issue.”

RELATED STORY: Convicts in Vhong Navarro case jailed

Despite DOJ’s previous affirmation on the junking of rape and attempted rape charges against Navarro in 2018, on July 21, 2022, the Court of Appeals (CA) ordered the City Prosecutor of Taguig City to file rape and acts of lasciviousness charges against the TV host-actor over the alleged rape of Cornejo.

September 20, 2022 

Navarro surrendered to the NBI after a Taguig court issued a warrant of arrest against him, with a recommended bail set at P36,000.

Despite his surrender, Navarro “reiterates that he is the victim of the crimes of serious illegal detention and grave coercion.”

Despite Navarro’s temporary imprisonment, the CA denied Lee’s motion to dismiss the serious illegal detention case filed against him by the comedian-host.

After two detention transfers, the Taguig RTC Branch 69 granted Navarro’s petition, allowing him to post a P1 million bail. The presiding judge cited that the “evidence presented by the prosecution in the bail hearings is too weak to warrant Navarro’s continued detention pending the trial of his case.”

The following day, December 6, Navarro was released from detention upon posting the necessary bail for his temporary liberty.

February 8, 2023

As Navarro resumed his hosting duties on “It’s Showtime,” the Supreme Court’s (SC) Third Division dismissed the charges of rape and acts of lasciviousness against him due to a lack of probable cause.

“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 SC said.

May 2, 2024

After 10 years, a Taguig court found Lee, Cornejo, Guerrero, and Simeon Raz guilty of illegally detaining Navarro, with a sentence of reclusion perpetua or up to 40 years in prison, and ordered them to pay Navarro P100,000 in civil indemnity, P100,000 as moral damages, and P100,000 as exemplary damages.

Raz and Cornejo were immediately sent by the court to the Correctional Institution for Women and the New Bilibid Prison, respectively. Meanwhile, Lee later surrendered to the NBI.

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