“It’s Showtime” host and comedian Ferdinand “Vhong” Navarro thanked a Taguig court for granting his petition for bail that will allow him to be released from jail while the trial for the rape case filed by model Deniece Cornejo is ongoing.
“Mr. Vhong Navarro is very happy and grateful that he has been granted bail. He is thankful to the court which granted his petition,” his lawyer Alma Mallonga told Manila Bulletin on Dec. 6.
She added, “His family, his friends, his legal team, and all those who supported and believed in him throughout his ordeal certainly share his happiness in this wonderful development.”
The Taguig Regional Trial Court Branch 69 under Presiding Judge Loralie Cruz Datahan issued a decision dated Dec. 5, granting a P1-million bail to Navarro.
“Wherefore, premises considered, the petition for bail is hereby granted. The bail of the accused for his provisional liberty is hereby fixed at One Million Pesos (P1,000,000.00),” according to the court’s decision.
In the decision, the judge stated that “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.”
“It must be emphasized, however, that a grant of bail does not prevent the Court, as trier of facts, from making a final assessment of the evidence after full trial on the merits,” the court added.
Navarro is accused of raping Cornejo on Jan. 17, 2014 inside her condominium unit in Taguig.
He is currently detained at the Taguig City Jail Male Dormitory, where he was transferred to from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) detention center, which served as his detention facility since Sept. 20.
Navarro was detained after the Taguig court issued a non-bailable warrant of arrest against him on Sept. 19. He surrendered to the NBI in Quezon City on the same day for a bailable warrant of arrest for acts of lasciviousness, also filed by Cornejo, but the warrant of arrest for rape was issued in the afternoon.
He was transferred to the NBI facility in Manila on Sept. 20 and was brought to the Taguig jail on Nov. 21 based on a commitment order by the court.