A WARRANT has been issued against Arnel Pineda, renowned lead vocalist of the American rock band Journey, by the Quezon City regional trial court to compel him to appear in the arraignment of his domestic case filed by his estranged wife.
The bench warrant was issued after Pineda failed to appear several times in the scheduled arraignment of the case, following a judicial finding of probable cause by Presiding Judge Mary Ayn Punzalan-Toribio of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 99, based on the case filed by the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office for violation of the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004 (Republic Act no. 9262 or the VAWC law) against the Journey frontman.
Inquirer Entertainment has reached out to Pineda for comment, but he has yet to respond as of the posting of this article. It’s unclear if he is in the Philippines at this time.
The sheriff who served the warrant on Sept. 12 could not find Pineda at home, the source added.
On Sept. 11, a scheduled hearing was set after Pineda’s lawyers assured the court that he would attend. But after more than two hours of waiting, Pineda did not show up, prompting the judge to reiterate the bench warrant to compel his attendance in the next hearing scheduled Sept. 17.
Pineda is being accused of marital infidelity and psychological abuse under Section 5 of the VAWC law, which “criminalizes acts that cause mental or emotional anguish to a woman or her child, including public ridicule, repeated verbal and emotional abuse, and denial of financial support or custody.”
The case is bailable.
Case documents obtained by the Inquirer Entertainment showed that the couple’s relationship was already quite strained while they were still living together in 2003.
In her sworn statement to the prosecutors, the wife said she decided to stay in the relationship with him and try to influence him to change.
In 2007, Journey guitarist Neal Schon discovered Arnel on YouTube and offered him the position of the band’s new lead singer.
In 2008, Pineda and the complainant got married, as he tried to juggle family life with his newfound fame and fortune with Journey.
By 2012, the couple has three children. But problems continued to hound the marriage, until 2021 when the couple were no longer on good terms and had traded accusations.
The wife complained that Pineda had barred her from accessing their joint bank account as well as prevented her from staying at their Quezon City house.
The Office of the Prosecutor in Quezon City, acting on the wife’s formal complaint, then recommended that Pineda be indicted for Section 5 (i) of RA 9262. Bail was set at P72,000.
In March 2025, Pineda denied that he was “sentenced to life imprisonment” in the US, after rumors of being convicted at a San Francisco, California court. (Hannah Mallorca © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
