Accused in Vhong case flies abroad - DOJ

MANILA, Philippines — Jose Paolo Calma, one of the accused in the alleged mauling of actor Vhong Navarro, was able to slip out of the country, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Tuesday.

Calma managed to fly abroad last April 10, a day before the Taguig Metropolitan Trial Court issued arrest warrants against him, businessman Cedric Lee, model Deniece Cornejo and four others for the case of grave coercion.

De Lima said Calma was wrongly identified as "John Paul Calma" in the database of the Bureau of Immigration.

Calma has also yet to post the required P12,000 bail bond for his temporary liberty.

The group was accused of allegedly forcing Navarro to admit to raping Cornejo after assaulting him.

While Calma is also a respondent in the serious illegal detention case linked to the mauling of Navarro, he is not included in the arrest orders released by the Taguig Regional Trial Court on Monday.

De Lima earlier said that one of those allegedly involved in Lee's "Oplan Bugbog" against Navarro has turned state witness and set to rat out the other respondents.

Cornejo, Jed Fernandez and Bernice Lee, meanwhile, have already posted bail for the arrest warrants in connection with the grave coercion case.

Cedric, mixed martial artist Simeon "Zimmer" Raz and Ferdinand Guerrero have yet to surface or arrested by the authorities.