THE Supreme Court (SC) dismissed on Monday, March 13, 2023, the charges of rape and acts of lasciviousness filed by model Denice Cornejo against actor/host Ferdinand “Vhong” Navarro.
In a 43-page decision of the SC Third Division dated February 8, the High Court granted the Petition for Review on Certiorari filed by Navarro, dismissing the cases due to lack of probable cause.
It ordered the reversal of the Court of Appeals’ (CA) decision dated July 21, 2022 and its September 20, 2022 resolution that ordered the re-filing of rape and acts of lasciviousness charges against Navarro despite it being dismissed already by the Department of Justice.
The division also noted in its decision the “inconsistencies” in Cornejo’s allegations against Navarro, particularly on the incidents that happened on January 17 and 22, 2014.
In her first complaint, Cornejo said nothing happened to the two of them when the respondent visited her in her condominium unit on January 17 but she claimed in her second and third complaints that Navarro raped her.
Meanwhile, Cornejo failed to allege in her second complaint that Navarro attempted to rape her, which was indicated in her first and third complaints.
Cornejo executed her first affidavit on January 29, 2014, the second on February 27, 2014, and the third on October 16, 2015.
“Here, the prosecutor had reasons to doubt the veracity of Corejo'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,” the order read.
“To suggest that a prosecutor tum 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,” it added.
The division said the inconsistencies in Cornejo’s allegations are not “trivial, minor or inconsequential,” noting that “no amount of skillful or artful deportment, manner of speaking or portrayal in 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.”
In December, after about two months of detention, the court allowed Navarro to post P1 million bail for his provisional liberty over the charges. (SunStar Philippines)