Court rejects Cornejo’s MR on Vhong Navarro bail
THE Taguig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) has denied the motion for reconsideration (MR) of model Deniece Millinete Cornejo who sought to reconsider the grant of bail to television host Vhong Navarro on charges of rape.
In an order, Branch 69 Presiding Judge Loralie Cruza Datahan noted that Cornejo’s motion for reconsideration was filed, thru her private counsel, “without the public prosecutor’s conformity.”
Datahan cited Rule 110, Section 5 of the Rules of Court (Who must prosecute criminal cases), and Laude v. Ginez-Jabalde, which ruled that “the required conformity of the public prosecutor was not a mere superfluity and was necessary to pursue a criminal action.”
“In this case, there is no conformity from the public prosecutor. This circumstance was not denied by the private respondent…,” Datahan’s order read.
In her motion for reconsideration, Cornejo pointed out that Navarro “failed to file the formal offer of evidence, as ordered by the Honorable Court, not just once but twice, on 11 November and 18 November 2022 respectively.”
Cornejo continued that the court may have “erred in finding that the inconsistencies in the private complainant’s affidavits and testimony are too material to ignore.”
“The private complainant never said that she was not raped. The private complainant was merely silent about it because she was scared and ashamed of the stigma of a rape victim, she was scared that her family will no Ionger be able to depend on her, she was also terrified at the thought of going against a giant such as Vhong Navarro,” her motion read.
Last month, Datahan allowed Navarro to post a bail bond of P1 million on the rape case filed against him by Cornejo.
In a 29-page order dated December 5, 2022, Datahan said: “Viewed in light of all the foregoing, and taking the evidence presented in the bail hearings as a whole, this Court is not convinced at this point, that there exists a presumption great leading to the inference of the accused’s guilt.”
But the court pointed out that the grant of bail to Navarro will not prevent it, as the trier of facts, from conducting a full-blown trial on the merits of the controversial rape case.
