Taguig court holds prelim conference on Vhong Navarro case

MANILA, Philippines - The Taguig Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC) Branch 74 on Thursday morning held the preliminary conference on the case of grave coercion filed by television host Ferdinand “Vhong” Navarro against businessman Cedric Lee, his sister Bernice Lee, Zimmer Raz and model Deniece Cornejo.

Cornejo’s lawyer, Salvador Panelo, said in the hearing before the sala of Judge Bernard Bernal that the lawyers of Navarro and the accused agreed on the number of witnesses to be presented during the hearing. The lawyers from both camps also identified the issues to be resolved and the number of exhibits to be marked.

Panelo said Navarro was absent in the hearing and was ordered by the court to appear for the case’s pre-trial hearing on December 11. The lawyers from both camps will meet in court on November 6 for the pre-marking of documents.

Panelo added that all of the accused would present themselves as witnesses in the case with Cornejo to present four police officers from the Southern Police District as additional defense witnesses.

It would be recalled that Navarro filed the grave coercion case against Cornejo, Cedric Lee, Bernice Lee and Raz and three others before the court in connection with the serious illegal detention case he had also filed against them.

Also facing the charge of grave coercion are Jose Paulo “JP” Gregorio Calma, Ferdinand Guerrero and Jed Fernandez. Calma left the country last April 10.

Cornejo and Bernice earlier pleaded not guilty to the grave coercion charge while Fernandez was ordered arrested by the court for failing to show up for his arraignment. The court meanwhile entered not guilty pleas for the grave coercion charge for Cedric and Raz during their respective arraignments.

Cornejo, Cedric Lee and Raz are now temporarily out of detention after the Taguig Regional Trial Court Branch 271 granted their petition to post bail for the serious illegal detention slapped against them by Navarro.