Vhong Navarro/Instagram
MANILA — Vhong Navarro will pursue legal remedies after the Court of Appeals ordered the release of Deniece Cornejo and Cedric Lee, the actor’s lawyer said Monday.
“Through all these years, Mr. Vhong Navarro chose to keep faith with the justice system in place in our country… In keeping with that faith, he will continue to pursue all the remedies that are available to him,” Navarro’s lawyer Alma Mallonga said.
“He is prepared to fully accept the result of that process when it finally ends,” she said in a message to ABS CBN News.
BuCor checking records before release of Cedric Lee, Deniece Cornejo
The Court of Appeals had modified Lee and Cornejo’s conviction in the case filed by Navarro, reducing the offense from serious illegal detention for ransom to grave coercion.
The appellate court sentenced them to six months as minimum to three years, six months and 21 days as maximum.
Mallonga also asserted that “it is not true that the accused have been detained since 2014, which is the reason the Court of Appeals had ordered their immediate release.”
“But they have, in fact, been serving time in prison. Whether or not the period the accused have spent in incarceration is sufficient, considering the affirmance of their conviction, is a matter of law which everyone is bound to respect,” she said.
“Mr. Navarro shall continue to trust in the process and abide by whatever that requires,” Mallonga added.
The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) said it was verifying court orders before releasing Lee and Cornejo, who are also serving sentences in a separate grave coercion case.
Lee has been in BuCor custody since May 3, 2024, while Cornejo was received a day earlier.
As of September 26, Lee had 460 days of Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA), bringing his credited time served to three years, 10 months and 29 days.
Cornejo had 440 days of GCTA and 75 days of Time Allowance for Study, Teaching and Mentoring (TASTM), giving her three years, nine months and 24 days of credited time served.
BuCor's current computation places Lee's minimum sentence date on February 18, 2027, and Cornejo's on December 23, 2026.
— With a report from Karen De Guzman, ABS-CBN News
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