Celebrity cosmetic surgeon Joel Mendez was arrested on charges of rape and attempted rape but was released after posting bail, police said yesterday.
Senior Supt. Moises Villaceran, Mandaluyong police chief, said Mendez was arrested at the basement parking lot of the BSA Twin Towers in Mandaluyong City on Thursday night.
The celebrity doctor was arrested by virtue of a warrant issued by Judge Imelda Saulog of the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court Branch 214 on a count of attempted rape and two counts of rape. Villaceran said Mendez was the subject of surveillance and stakeout operations for several months before his arrest. The warrant was issued two years ago.
“We went to the court just to verify if the warrant is authenticated. The court said that the warrant is still effective to serve, so we immediately conducted a surveillance against him (Mendez) and then we caught him at the basement parking lot of the BSA tower at around 11:30pm,” Villaceran told Manila Times in a phone interview.
Asked if the victim was Mendez’s patient, Villaceran said, “Allegedly based on our information which is not yet confirmed, maybe the victim was his patient, a model or something.” The victim has yet to talk to the police.
Mendez was released on Friday afternoon after posting bail of P120,000 each for the two counts of rape and attempted rape, or a total of P360,000, Villaceran said.
“He (Mendez) was released from his detention cell at around 3.10pm. The cases are bailable,” Villaceran said.
Once a popular cosmetic surgeon, Mendez put up several beauty and fitness clinics and treated showbiz celebrities like Pauleen Luna, Melanie Marquez, Janice de Belen, Ara Mina and Claudine Barretto.
Before this arrest, Mendez was convicted for tax evasion.
In 2016, the Court of Tax Appeals found Mendez guilty of violation of Section 255 of the National Internal Revenue Code for failing to file his income tax return for the year 2001 amounting to P1.09mn.
He was likewise found guilty on two counts of tax evasion for failing to file his income tax return in 2002, amounting to P1.5mn, according to court records, and for falsifying what he had submitted in 2003.
Moreover, that same year, Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 88 also sentenced Mendez to a prison term of six to seven years for failure to remit at least P1.87mn in employee contributions to the Social Security System.
Mendez’s camp has yet to release a statement.
Joel Mendez: facing charges
