Vhong Navarro mauling scandal: Who is telling the truth?

Victim unwittingly or wittingly?

When I heard Vhong Navarro's story, one movie flashed into my mind--the Jennifer Aniston directed movie, "Derailed" released in 2005(http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/derailed-2005). HBO (or is it Starworld) featured it.

The movie's plot is kinda similar with Vhong Navarro's account on the alleged mauling incident which involved him and several "thugs" who reportedly tried to extort money from him.

Try to read this and you'll be surprised how similar Navarro's story with those of Clive Owen who acted as Charles, a victim of extortion by the gang led by the beautiful Jennifer Aniston and Vincent Cassel. see this link.

Now, for us not to be fooled by all these media campaign being undertaken right now by both sides, just to elicit our sympathies, let's look at the facts.

Victims or extortionists?

Here are the unvarnished facts. Last January 17, Vhong Navarro met the beautiful Deniece Millet Cornejo, a 22 year old commercial model. They met at the model's condominium unit in Bonifacio Global City, this, inspite of the fact that Navarro had a girlfriend.

Navarro claims something happened but without sexual intercourse. Previous to this, Navarro did not explain how and when he first met Cornejo. Maybe they belonged to one circle, since Cornejo dabbled once in a while as an actress at ABS-CBN.

Anyway, Navarro claims that Cornejo texted him and asked him to come to her condo unit. Navarro went there and found Cornejo. What is established is that Cornejo asked Navarro to enter her condo unit. It is at this point that Navarro's and Cornejo, along with her friend, Cedric Lee's stories differ.

According to Navarro, Cornejo expressed surprised when he suddenly appeared right at her footsteps.  Navarro sensed something was wrong when Cornejo told him that she had'nt fixed or cleaned her unit yet, when, according to the actor, they previously exchanged texts and she knew he will be visiting her unit.

When Navarro entered and sat himself down, Cornejo reportedly left the unit. Unexpectedly, a man with a gun appeared and pointed it to him.

The man reportedly asked Navarro not to scream. He did not. Other people arrived. They put duck tape on Navarro. They mauled him and coerced him to admit that he tried to rape Cornejo.

Cedric Lee's story is different.

Lee said that he and sister, along with some of his friends, went to Cornejo's unit to ask her to go out. When they arrived, they saw the door slightly opened. Cedric entered and found a man on top of Deniece. Deniece was screaming and trying to break free from the man.

Thinking that his friend was being raped, Cedric pulled the man out which allowed Cornejo to run towards Cedric's sister. The sister pulled Deniece out of the unit while Cedric and another friend tried to effect a citizen's arrest upon the man.

They later found out that it was Navarro that they arrested. They tried to pacify Navarro but he resisted and tried to punch them. They punched back. They then saw a duck tape and used it on Navarro.

They arrived at the police station. This is the end of the story for which both camps gave us similar facts.

At the police station, both camps arrived at an amicable settlement. Deniece did not file an attempted rape case while Navarro refused to go to the hospital for a checkup. Both camps sign a letter of desistance and the incident was put in the blotter. Both camps asked that the police must not inform the media about the incident.

Now, here's the surprising facts...what happened afterwards?

Navarro reportedly went to a hospital and there, did checked in to cure his wounds he suffered from the mauling. The other party reportedly texted Navarro of his commitment to pay for all the damaged furniture inside Deniece's unit.

It should have ended there but no.

Last Friday, Navarro reported the incident to the media.

I commend Navarro's handlers for knowing the very first principle in crisis management---be the first to establish the facts. In a crisis situation, the very first to tell the public what happened usually gets the public's sympathy and 80% of the time, is viewed as a credible source.

What even made this thing highly favorable to Navarro was the fact that showbiz personalities all bonded together and expressed their sympathies and support behind the actor, even though most of them did not exactly know what really happened.

This solidified the "believability" factor of Navarro's story. Those expressions of support, contrived or not, were shown to the public to "herd" everyone to Navarro's side. This is being strengthened by ABS-CBN reporting that even the social media community is now solidly behind Navarro. They want us to believe that everything Navarro said was "gospel truth".

Well, try again.

What Cedric Lee told the public has more credibility than Navarro's, if you ask me. Navarro's testimony has full of holes.

For one, Navarro claims that these are all a setup, just to make him cough money. Okey, let's test his claim.

Navarro did not dispute the fact that he was turned over to the police. Alleged victim (Navarro) and alleged extortionists (Cornejo and Lee) inside a police station? Why did Navarro file a complaint of illegal detention and serious physical injuries or extortion against Lee the very moment they arrived at the police station? Don't tell me that Vhong Navarro had the presence of mind to even think that those cops were in cahoots with the alleged extortionists? Whoa!

The natural reaction of an alleged victim of a crime is to resist, and try to escape and go to the nearest police station. Navarro was'nt able to do that, because his alleged "captors" already gave him that chance when they turned him over to the police. Meaning, his "captors" had one thing in their minds--report a crime.

Meaning, there is a stronger than usual chance that Lee's narration of the facts is more truthful than Navarro's.

Lastly, if you're a victim of a crime, then, your very first instinct is to call for help. Navarro did not solicit the help of the condo guards. He likewise did not show resistance when he and the group left the condo for the police station. Meaning, there was a willingness on the part of Navarro to go with the group to the police station to settle something, and what is that something? There is a strong possibility that Navarro did tried to commit rape.

Oppps!!! Wait a minute...

There is likewise a strong possibility that there was no rape involved and that everything that happened was just a misunderstanding on the part of Lee's group. Let me explain.

Lee said he and his sister entered the condo unit when they heard shouts. Lee reportedly saw a man with his pants down pinning himself against Deniece.

This scene can be disputed by Navarro's party by saying that that was no rape but a presumption of rape. Deniece's "shouting" was just it, "shouting". Lee did not specify that Deniece was shouting for help. The defence may present this fact as Deniece shouting as part of pre-intercourse or part of love-making. There are instances where women "shout" in ecstacy or make noise during love making?

We will never know. There is a possibility that Navarro was not trying to rape Deniece and was just doing "preliminaries". Of course, Lee cannot be faulted when he acted violently because he did not know the true "score".