Suspect in Vhong beating falls

MANILA, Philippines - One of the men accused of beating up actor Vhong Navarro was arrested in his condominium unit in Makati on Sunday night.

Businessman and mixed martial arts fighter Ferdinand Guerrero fell a year after hiding from authorities. His arrest stemmed from a warrant issued by Judge Paz Esperanza Cortez of the Taguig regional trial court.

Anti-narcotics agents of the National Bureau of Investigation nabbed Guerrero at the Ritz Condominium at around 11 p.m. He did not resist arrest, according to lawyer Eric Isidoro, chief of NBI’s Reaction, Arrest, and Interdiction Division.

Guerrero is one of the men Navarro accused of beating him while he was in a Forbeswood Condominium unit occupied by model Deniece Cornejo in Taguig last year. They were charged with serious illegal detention, a non-bailable case.

But during the proceedings, Guerrero’s co-accused Cedric Lee, Zimmer Raz, and Cornejo were allowed to post bail because Navarro’s camp “failed to provide strong evidence that said illegal detention is actually serious or actually for the sake of kidnapping.”

In an interview with reporters, Guerrero said his hiding was based on his lawyer’s advice, as the media had been demonizing the respondents in the case.

But he said only Lee beat up Navarro because of Cornejo’s claim that the actor “abused” her. “He should man up,” said Guerrero, insisting that Navarro sexually abused the model but refused to elaborate.

Navarro has denied the claims and said Lee’s group only wanted to extort P2 million from him.

Guerrero said when he went to Forbeswood to discuss business with Lee, Navarro had been beaten black and blue.

Guerrero also denied Navarro’s accusation that their group wanted money from him, saying P2 million is loose change for all of them because they all have their own businesses.

DOJ: File rape case, not letter

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has virtually ignored a letter from disc jockey-turned-actress Kat Alano accusing a certain “public figure” of rape. 

In an interview yesterday, DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima said she did not even read the letter.

“She has to file a case, and then it will start at the prosecutor’s office. Let the prosecutor assess the case, assess the evidence if there was really rape,” she explained. 

“That is really how each and every rape case proceeds – by filing a complaint with the prosecutor’s office,” De Lima added. 

In her letter to De Lima last week, Alano claimed that her assailant was allowed to go free under the justice secretary’s jurisdiction. 

She said several rape cases had been filed against him but he was released and the complaints were dismissed. 

Alano did not name the person and only said he is a “public figure.” 

Reports, however, pertained to the suspect as Navarro. The rape charges filed against him by Cornejo, a beauty contestant and a stuntwoman have all been dismissed by prosecutors. – With Edu Punay