MANILA – Vhong Navarro, through his lawyer, Atty. Alma Mallonga, voiced his disappointment over the ruling to allow model Deniece Cornejo, businessman Cedric Lee and Simeon Raz, Jr., to post bail relative to the charge of serious illegal detention and the alleged mauling incident on January 22.
Navarro’s camp said that they have “lost faith” in the judge handling the case filed by the television host and actor
Atty. Mallonga said in an interview on DZMM on Tuesday that they have countered the ruling, of Judge Paz Esperanza-Cortes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 271 to grant the motion for bail for all three of the accused. Bail was set at P500,000 each.
Mallonga acknowledged that their side has already submitted their motion for reconsideration, as well as a motion for inhibition against the resolution.
“We have lost our confidence in the court to appreciate this case properly. It appears to me that the court said that there was admittedly a detention but ang sabi ng korte na whether or not the detention is illegal is of doubt,” she said.
“Amazingly enough, the matter of whether or not a rape occurred, the court also said it is not yet to be determined. In other words, nothing happened. The CCTV footage is meaningless. It does not show that rape could not have possible occurred and you rely instead on the doubts engendered by the counter affidavits of the accused who have never even testified in court,” she added.
The lawyer likewise disclosed that their decision to publicly vent their frustrations against the court and the presiding judge came as a result of statements made by the camp of the accused, saying that the judge’s decision to grant bail “validates” their innocence.
“We are saying this by the way, we are minded to say this in public because the accused have already gone out in public and said, categorically, that the case and the decision of the court vindicates the accused and that it validates what they have been saying all along that they had effected merely a lawful arrest,” she said.
“Mga kaibigan, alam na alam natin dahil nakita natin sa sarili natin mga mata at paggamit natin ng utak na hindi posible ‘iyon. But the court said it will not yet determine that matter. So my question is, when? Kailan kaya?” she followed-up.