The Court of Appeals has denied the appeal of comedian and television host Ferdinand “Vhong” Navarro for a reprieve after it junked his motion for reconsideration on the rape by sexual intercourse and acts of lasciviousness charges against him.
In a seven-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Florencio Mamauag Jr., the CA’s Special Fourteenth Division also rejected Navarro’s camp motion for the issuance of a status quo ante order to enjoin the filing of the said cases against him.
“Here, the issues raised by Navarro in his motion — the parties’ credibility, the truthfulness of their respective claims and the strength of their evidence — are matters best left to the determination of the trial court after a full-blown trial on the merits,” the appellate court ruled.
In its July 21, 2022 decision, the CA reversed and set aside the 2018 and 2020 resolutions of the Department of Justice dismissing the complaint filed by model Deniece Cornejo in 2014.
The CA held that based on its review of the complaint filed by Cornejo, it showed that all the elements of rape by sexual intercourse under paragraph (1) of Article 266-A are sufficiently alleged.
It stressed that it was “erroneous” for the DOJ to dismiss Cornejo’s petition on the ground that her statements in the complaint-affidavits are inconsistent and incredible.
In his motion for reconsideration, Navarro through his counsel, Alma Mallonga, accused the appellate court of “unwarranted interference” with the prosecutor’s power to determine the existence of probable cause without justifying how the DOJ committed grave abuse of discretion.
Navarro lamented that such action by the CA is prohibited under established jurisprudence considering that the determination of probable cause by prosecutors is considered an executive function.
Navarro’s camp asserted that the charges against him were correctly dismissed by the DOJ and that Cornejo has not produced any new or additional evidence that will make the outcome of the present cases different from the previous complaints.
He reiterated that Cornejo’s statements under oath has disproved the commission of rape and acts of lasciviousness and noted that the first two complaints were dismissed because of the glaring inconsistencies in her narration of facts.
He insisted that his version of the events that transpired on January 17, 2014 and January 22, 2014 were truthful and credible.
In support of his claim, Navarro provided the CA several screenshots of the CCTV footages in Cornejo’s condominium elevator/lobby where the latter is shown to be “walking calmly and not hysterically running” and even smiling and kissing Cedric Lee.
Navarro argued that the dismissals of the two complaints against him, which already attained finality, constitutes res judicata — a legal principle where a party is barred from raising an issue or presenting evidence on a fact that has already been judicially tried and decided.
According to him, the denial of Cornejo’s demurrer to evidence in the serious illegal detention case is proof that the prosecution has established sufficient proof to sustain a guilty verdict against his accuser.
In denying Navarro’s motion for reconsideration, the appellate court held that while it is the function of the public prosecutor to determine the sufficiency of evidence that establishes the probable cause that will justify the filing of a criminal information, “it is equally true that judicial review is permitted where it is established that the public prosecutor committed grave abuse of discretion.”
“We reiterate once more that preliminary investigation is merely inquisitorial. It is not a trial of the case on the merits and has no purpose except that of determining whether a crime has been committed and whether there is probable cause to believe that the accused is guilty thereof. While the fiscal makes that determination, he cannot be said to be acting as a quasi-court, for it is the courts, ultimately, that pass judgment on the accused, not the fiscal,” the CA said.
Court records showed that Cornejo accused Navarro of two counts of rape by sexual intercourse and by sexual assault.
In her first complaint against Navarro, Cornejo said he pinned her down, touched her private parts but when he was about to rape her, her friends arrived at her condominium unit in Taguig city on January 22, 2014.
Cornejo filed a second complaint dated February 27, 2014 against Navarro, accusing him of rape as she denied Navarro’s allegation that she consented to perform oral sex on him on January 17, 2014.
A third complaint was filed by Cornejo wherein she provided the DOJ more details of the January 17, 2014 and January 22, 2014 incidents.
However, the DOJ, in dismissing Cornejo’s complaints, said her accounts “suffer from a very serious credibility issue.”
