Vhong files perjury raps vs accusers

MANILA, Philippines - Television host Ferdinand “Vhong” Navarro filed perjury charges against his accusers yesterday.

At the Pasig City justice hall, he filed a complaint against former beauty pageant contestant Roxanne Cabanero with the office of Assistant City Prosecutor Ma. Benet Santos-Madamba.

He accused Cabanero of lying under oath when she said he raped her on the night of April 24, 2010.

Navarro also filed his counter-affidavit before the Pasig City prosecutor’s office denying Cabanero’s allegation.

From the Pasig City Hall, Navarro’s group went straight to the Manila city hall to file charges against model Deniece Cornejo, businessman Cedric Lee, Lee’s sister Bernice Lee, Zimmer Raz, and JP Calma for allegedly concocting the story that he raped Cornejo in her condominium unit in Taguig on Jan. 22.

Out of town

In his counter-affidavit, Navarro swore that he was in an out-of-town show at the Island Cove resort in Kawit, Cavite the whole night of April 24, 2010 when Cabanero claimed he raped her in a condo-hotel in Pasig City.

Navarro – accompanied by Pilipino Star Ngayon columnist Tony Calvento; lawyers led by Alma Mallonga; and his talent manager, film director Chito Roño – caused a frenzy among city employees at the justice hall.

In an interview with reporters after filing his complaint and counter-affidavit, Navarro said he is determined to go after Cabanero for an apparent attempt to destroy his reputation.

“This affected my job, where I get the money to feed my family,” he said.

Cabanero surfaced shortly after Navarro accused Cornejo and Lee of conspiring to extort money from him and beating him up in Cornejo’s condominium unit.

Different crime

The perjury case is the sixth criminal case that Navarro’s camp filed against Cornejo, Lee and the three others.

The actor also filed serious illegal detention, blackmail, extortion, serious physical injuries, and grave coercion before the Department of Justice (DOJ) in January.

“This is for a different crime they’ve committed. This is for their lies,” Mallonga said.

A person can be charged with perjury if he or she lies under oath or in a sworn affidavit. Article 183 of the Revised Penal Code defined it as the willful and corrupt assertion of a falsehood under oath or affirmation administered by authority of law on a material matter.

A person convicted of perjury can be meted a prison term of up to 12 years.

“It’s basically a testament and a warning to anybody who wants to make up any stories... For them to be careful about what they say. Laws on perjury are often ignored,” Mallonga said.

Demonstrable falsehoods

Mallonga said she has been considering filing perjury charges against the suspects since February. It did not push through, however, because only Cornejo had submitted a sworn affidavit countering Navarro’s charges before the DOJ.

“What sealed the deal are the counter-affidavits they filed (before the DOJ),” she said. “This is for the demonstrable falsehoods contained in them. When we say demonstrable it means it can be seen from the affidavit that they are lying.”

Mallonga said what struck her as funny is that they used the counter-affidavits of each respondent as evidence of perjury incriminating the other respondents.

Navarro was beaten up in Cornejo’s Forbeswood Heights condominium unit.

Cornejo and Lee claimed that Navarro was beaten after the latter and his friends caught him on top of the model, forcing her to have sex with him.

Navarro denied the charges, saying Cornejo invited him to the unit and he was beaten immediately after he entered the unit. The actor also insisted the group extorted P2 million from him.

Aside from these documents, Navarro’s camp also submitted a compact disc containing the footage of the condominium’s closed-circuit television camera, which showed that Cornejo left her unit a minute after Navarro arrived.