Vhong’s camp congratulates NBI for arresting Cedric Lee, Zimmer Raz

MANILA, Philippines - The camp of actor Ferdinand “Vhong” Navarro on Saturday congratulated the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for the arrests of businessman Cedric Lee and Simeon Palma alias Zimmer Raz in Oras, Eastern Samar. 

Navarro’s lawyer, Alma Mallonga said the arrests of Lee and Raz, who are among five accused in the serious illegal detention of Navarro last January 22, would pave the way for the start of the hearing of the serious illegal detention case now lodged at the Taguig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 271.

Earlier, Taguig RTC Branch 271 Judge Paz Esperanza Cortes ordered the arrests of Lee, Raz, model

Deniece Millinette Cornejo, Sajed “Jed” Fernandez Abuhijleh and Ferdinand Guerrero after finding probable cause to indict them for serious illegal detention, which is a non-bailable offense.

Cortes however cleared Cedric’s sister, Bernice Cua Lee and Jose Paolo Calma for lack of probable cause.

“We are grateful to the Department of Justice and the NBI and congratulate them for doing their tasks well in effecting the arrests of the accused. We are happy that the cases can now proceed. We continue to have faith in the process,” said Mallonga.

“Everyone has a stake in ensuring that the cases now go to trial and a just judgment rendered by the courts,” she added.

Mallonga earlier said that until one of the at-large accused in the case is arrested, the case of serious illegal detention lodged at the Taguig RTC Branch 271 would not proceed.

“It is very important that any of the five accused be arrested so that we could continue with the proceedings. We know for a fact that arraignment is necessary for trial to proceed. And arraignment cannot take place if the accused are nowhere to be found. So in order for this case to come to its logical conclusion, which is for trial to proceed and for convictions to be made based on the results of the trial, the accused have to be arrested,” she said.