Cedric Lee, Deniece Cornejo get 3 years for Vhong Navarro attack

MANILA, Philippines — A Taguig City court yesterday found businessman Cedric Lee, model Deniece Cornejo and several others guilty of grave coercion in connection with the attack on actor-host Ferdinand “Vhong” Navarro over four years ago.

Taguig City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 74 Judge Bernard Pineda Bernal found Lee, Cornejo and Sajed Fernandez Abuhijleh alias “Jed Fernandez” guilty of grave coercion and sentenced them to serve a minimum of six months and a maximum of three years and six months in prison.

 Navarro filed the case because he was allegedly forced to admit to attempting to rape Cornejo by signing a police blotter at the Southern Police District headquarters, where he was brought by the accused after beating him up in Cornejo’s condominium unit at the Bonifacio Global City in January 2014.

Last June, the Department of Justice affirmed its previous resolution in 2017 junking rape and attempted rape charges filed by Cornejo against Navarro as there was “no sufficient evidence.”