The legal battle between Vhong Navarro and Deniece Cornejo is up one notch after the Department of Justice (DOJ) decided to consolidate their criminal complaints against each other.
The consolidation means Navarro’s complaint and Cornejo’s counter-charge will be resolved by the all-female preliminary investigation panel composed of Assistant State Prosecutors Olivia Torrevillas, Hazel Decena-Valdez and Marie Elvira Herrera in the DOJ.
The criminal cases emanated from the beating of Navarro last Jan. 22.
“We will consolidate the cases to expedite the (preliminary investigation) and also to avoid conflicting findings,” Prosecutor General Claro Arellano said yesterday.
Arellano, head of DOJ’s prosecutorial arm, said he would issue today an office order for this purpose.
Navarro filed last week against Cornejo, businessman Cedric Lee and six others charges of serious illegal detention, a non-bailable offense; serious physical injuries; grave threats; grave coercion; unlawful arrest and blackmail.
Apart from Lee and Cornejo, the other respondents in the case are Lee’s sister Bernice, a certain Ferdinand Guerrero and Zimmer Rance, an alias Mike and two other unidentified men. They will be summoned to appear before the panel and answer the charges.
After Navarro filed charges, Cornejo – through lawyer Howard Calleja – then filed a counter-charge of rape against Navarro before the Taguig City prosecutor’s office.
The NBI had said evidence – most notably, the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage from the condominium where the incident took place – would support the version of Navarro, making Cornejo’s rape claim “highly improbable.”
The DOJ had placed Lee, Cornejo and their companions under the lookout bulletin order of the Bureau of Immigration.
A lookout bulletin order would not prevent Lee and Cornejo from leaving the country. Only a hold departure order (HDO) or watch list order issued by a trial court could prevent the accused in criminal cases from boarding international flights.--Excerpt from Philstar News