According to the proclamation released by the Taguig court on May 2, 2024, Cornejo, Lee, and their associates Simeon Palma Raz, Jr. and Ferdinand Guerrero were also ordered to pay a sum of P300, 000 as damages to Navarro.
Reclusion perpetua, under Article 27 of the Revised Penal Code, entails imprisonment of 20 to 40 years. The possibility of a pardon exists only after they have served up to 30 years of the sentence.
Only Cornejo and Raz were present at the reading of the court's verdict and were immediately taken to jail.
The court issued warrants of arrest against Lee and Guerrero, who were absent from the proclamation. Lee has since surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation or NBI.
In 2014, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a serious illegal detention case against Cornejo, Lee, Raz, Guerrero, and three others: Bernice Cua Lee, Jose Paolo Gregorio Calma, and Sajed Fernandez Abuhijleh.
According to the case, they detained Navarro in Cornejo's condominium unit in Taguig City on January 22, 2014, where he was also beaten up. The defendants allegedly demanded P 2 million from Navarro in exchange for his freedom.
Navarro expressed his gratitude for the justice he received in this case.
"Thank you so much, Lord, for always guiding me. Through everything I've been through in life, you were there. You were my center. And so true. So thank you. And thank you to the RTC Taguig for the justice you have given me that I have long been praying for. Thank you so much. Also, many thanks to my legal team for not giving up and for standing by me to the end," Navarro said in a live broadcast of his noontime show on GMA 7, It's Showtime.
Earlier, the Supreme Court dismissed the rape with acts of lasciviousness case filed by Cornejo against Navarro. Cornejo accused Navarro of raping her in her condominium unit in Taguig on January 17, 2014.
Before the rape case against Navarro was dismissed, he was detained at the National Bureau of Investigation detention center and then transferred to the Taguig City Jail Male Dormitory where the Taguig court issued a non-bailable warrant of arrest against him on September 18, 2022.
Navarro was subsequently released from the Taguig City Male Dormitory on December 6, 2022, after the Taguig Regional Trial Court Branch 69 approved his bail petition, which the TV host paid P 1 million for.
Meanwhile, Lee, one of the defendants, was previously sentenced to 18 years in prison for malversation along with former Mariveles, Bataan Mayor Angel Peliglorio, Jr. for the misuse of P23.47 million of town funds meant for the construction of a public market, which was never built.
