TV host Vhong Navarro faces rape case

TAGUIG City prosecutors have filed a rape case against comedian-television host Vhong Navarro for alleged sexual abuse against model Deniece Cornejo in 2014.

The charge sheet filed on Wednesday at the Taguig City Regional Trial Court (RTC), Navarro was accused of intoxicating and raping Cornejo on January 17, 2014 in her condo unit in Taguig.

The Court of Appeals earlier granted Cornejo’s petition challenging the dismissal of the rape charge before the Department of Justice.

The DOJ junked Cornejo’s rape complaint against Navarro due to inconsistencies in her affidavits, but the CA said Navarro was better off raising his defenses during trial in court.

In her initial complaint filed with the DOJ, Cornejo claimed she was raped on January 22, 2014 and that Navarro only visited her on January 17, 2014.

In subsequent complaints however, she claimed she was also raped on January 17, 2014, providing additional details such as being intoxicated due to a drug-laced wine in her third complaint.

The DOJ, acting on Cornejo’s appeal, said she was not able to explain inconsistencies in her affidavits.

But the CA said the issue of credibility should be determined during trial proper in court.

The Jan. 22, 2014 incident was widely covered by the media because it led to the mauling of Navarro, after Cornejo’s “friends,” Cedric Lee and some companions, beat him up inside Cornejo’s condo unit before tying him up and bringing him to a Southern Police District station.

In ruling in favor of filing of charges against Navarro, the appellate court did not discuss the grave coercion conviction against Lee, Cornejo and Jed Fernandez nor the alleged impossibility of rape within one minute, as the National Bureau of Investigation previously pointed out.