Vhong's camp loses assurance in case's judge

Vhong Navarro and his camp confessed they have "lost faith" in the judge who handles the serious illegal detention case filed by the television host/actor against model Deniece Cornejo and her other co-accused, Cedric Lee for an  alleged mauling incident last January 22.

Navarro's lawyer Atty. Alma Mallonga said  in an interview on DZMM on Tuesday, they have questioned the decision of Judge Paz Esperanza-Cortes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 271 where the motion of the two accused is granted to post bail, which was set at P500,000 each.

Mallonga confirmed that they have submitted both their motion for reexamination and 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 an sabi ng cart now 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 said.

Mallonga also clarified that she decided to  make public their frustrations against the court and the judge who is handling the case was in question because of the opposing camp's claim that the decision "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.

The lawyer also maintained that her client, Navarro is still not guilty, seeing that there is no pending rape cases against the him. According to Mallonga, the CCTV footage made it very clear that rape is impossible. “So I tell you, how can there be doubt about the matter?" she added.