THE Supreme Court has junked the rape and acts of lasciviousness cases lodged against actor and television host Ferdinand “Vhong” Navarro by model Deniece Cornejo for lack of probable cause.
The SC Third Division said the Department of Justice did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it dismissed the two cases before the Court of Appeals revived them last year and ordered the Taguig City prosecutors office to file the cases.
In reversing the ruling, the SC said the CA “gravely erred” when it granted the appeal filed by Cornejo despite the DOJ ruling dismissing the cases twice.
“Here, the prosecutor had reasons to doubt the veracity of Cornejo’s accusations, as the glaring and manifest inconsistencies pointed out in her complaints are readily discernible by common sense without need of rigorous examination or an expertise of a trial court judge for such purpose,” part of the 42-page decision penned by Associate Justice Henri Jean Paul Inting.
“To suggest that a prosecutor turn a blind eye to such glaring and manifest inconsistencies — under the premise that the evaluation thereof would already touch on the complainant’s credibility to be solely assessed in a full-blown trial — would be to compel the prosecutor to satisfy himself or herself to mere allegations in a complaint, and abdicate his or her bounden duty to screen cases for trial, thus passing the buck to the trial courts,” the decision added.
The ruling was promulgated last February 8 but was only made public yesterday.
The High Court explained that Cornejo’s inconsistent statements were not trivial or inconsequential.
Among the inconsistencies in Cornejo’s statement the SC noted were her allegations that she was raped by Navarro on the two occasions they met at her condo unit in Bonifacio Global City on January 17, 2014 and January 22.
The SC stressed that in the interest of justice and fair play Cornejo should not be permitted to “materially change” her theory in two previous complaints in a “deliberate attempt” to rectify weaknesses of her theories or add new material allegations.
Concurring with the decision were Associate Justices Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa, Samuel H. Gaerlan, Japar B. Dimaampao, and Maria Filomena D. Singh.
Taguig RTC Branch 69 Judge Loralie Cruz-Datahan allowed Navarro to post a P1 million bail for his temporary liberty last December.
Rape is a non-bailable offense but the court may grant bail if the prosecution’s evidence is weak.
