A Senate panel on Monday, August 12, said that there's "strong evidence" against independent contractors Jojo Nones and Richard Cruz who are implicated in the complaint filed by actor Sandro Muhlach before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada stated this during the second hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Information and Mass Media chaired by Senator Robinhood Padilla in relation to complaints of alleged abuse and sexual harassment after they held an executive session upon the request of Nones and Cruz.
"What we all understand right now and we agreed...there is strong evidence against these two gentlemen," Estrada said.
"We will just withhold all the information until all the pieces of evidence that are going to be gathered by the NBI are in," he added.
Both Nones and Cruz were present during the hearing after skipping the first one for fear of being subjected to a "media circus and premature trial" and denied allegations of sexual assault circulating on social media.
"Hindi po kami gumawa ng kahit anong sexual harassment or abuse laban kay Sandro Muhlach. Sa pagkakataong ito, sa harap ninyong lahat, mariing itinatanggi po namin lahat ng mapanirang akusasyon na ito laban sa amin (We did not commit any form of sexual harassment or abuse against Sandro Muhlach. By this time, in front of you, we deny all of these damaging accusations against us)," they said in a statement.
An executive session was requested when the topic shifted to the text messages between Muhlach and Nones before the alleged incident.
Sandro's father, Niño, read portions of the text messages to prove that it was not his son who initiated the conversation.
Based on what he read during the hearing, Nones texted Sandro at 3:59 a.m. on the morning of July 21.
After a brief exchange, their topic moved to alcohol to which Nones said "Gusto mo ba? (Do you want some? We have some alcohol here in the room. We can order some more."
Sandro no longer replied after Nones said "just me" when the former asked Nones who he was with in his room.
Nones then said that he was only kidding and said that he was with "drama peeps" before Sandro said that he would drop by to interact with the creatives as an opportunity to interact with them.
Estrada said that Cruz and Nones' camp made it appear that it was Sandro who texted them first when they failed to mention on social media their previous conversation before Sandro said that he would drop by their hotel room.
If a case would be filed by the NBI, they said that it would be done so within the week. The next hearing is set for Thursday, Aug. 14.