MANILA, Philippines - The Quezon City prosecutor’s office has dismissed for lack of probable cause the rape complaint filed by a stuntwoman against actor-host Ferdinand “Vhong” Navarro.
In a five-page resolution dated Oct. 15 and released to the media yesterday, Assistant City Prosecutor Nilda Ordoño dismissed the rape charges filed by Margarita Fajardo against Navarro after the complainant failed to establish that there were “assertions of force, threat or intimidation or grave abuse of authority.”
“There was no evidence that respondent threatened her with physical harm or with a weapon if she would not submit to his desires,” read the resolution approved by Chief Prosecutor Donald Lee.
“There is no reason for the complainant to be afraid of respondent so as to just follow whatever he required her to do as the incident allegedly happened ‘with lots of other people around outside,’” it added.
In her complaint filed in April, Fajardo, who worked as a stuntwoman in a telenovela starring Navarro, narrated the alleged rape incident that happened inside the sport utility vehicle of the actor sometime in early 2009 during the last few weeks of taping of the television program.
The complainant said the actor’s driver asked her to go inside the SUV because Navarro wanted to talk to her during a break in taping.
“I did not think anything of it and I was not afraid to be left alone with Vhong because we were taping with lots of other people around outside,” she said.
Once inside the vehicle, Fajardo narrated that the actor forced her to perform oral sex on him.
She said Navarro masturbated in front of her after she threatened that she will bite his sexual organ.
The complainant said the actor had carnal knowledge of her when he put his hands in her shorts and inserted his finger into her genitals.
“I did not tell anyone about what happened at the time because it was very painful, humiliating and shameful,” she said.
“After that day, I only shared this painful and humiliating experience to a handful of my really close friends,” she added.
The complainant said she never thought of filing or pursuing a case against the actor because she was afraid, ashamed and she thought that nothing would come out of it because of Navarro’s celebrity status.
“It is only now that I am coming out to tell my story because I was inspired by the courage of other women who are coming out now to seek justice and to tell the truth about Vhong,” she said.
The rape charges, the third against the actor, were filed months after Navarro figured in a controversial incident involving businessman Cedric Lee, model Deniece Cornejo and others inside a condominium in Taguig City in January.
In his counter-affidavit, Navarro said the supposed event claimed by Fajardo happened more than five years ago, casting doubt on the credibility of the charge itself and of the complainant.
“The timing of the filing of herein complaint thus raises serious questions on complainant’s credibility,” argued the actor.
Navarro added that the complainant is physically fit, agile and strong and could “have easily pushed him away during their tryst and could have struggled in the course of their ordeal.”
“Respondent stressed that there was never any occasion for her to ‘push’ or resist him because he never raped her or forced her to do anything,” read the resolution.
Meanwhile, the Taguig Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC) Branch 74 yesterday held the preliminary conference on the case of grave coercion filed by Navarro against Lee, his sister Bernice Lee, Zimmer Raz and Cornejo.
According to Cornejo’s lawyer Salvador Panelo, in the hearing before the sala of Judge Bernard Bernal, the lawyers of Navarro and the accused agreed on the number of witnesses to be presented during the hearing.
Lawyers from both camps also identified the issues to be resolved and the number of exhibits to be marked. – Janvic Mateo, Mike Frialde