Roy Pelovello (Manila Standard Today)
Reposted from http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNews.htm?f=2010/december/4/news4.isx&d=2010/december/4
A STUDENT of the University of the Philippines accused of torturing and killing a kitten in the Diliman, Quezon City, Campus last year had been indicted before a Quezon City court but posted bail, officials said Friday.
Joseph Carlo Candare, 19, a physics student, was indicted for violating the Animal Welfare Law based on an order by Assistant City Prosecutor Caroline Tobias, who found probable cause to charge him in court.
His case was raffled off to the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 40 under Judge Josephus Joannes Asis, who issued an arrest warrant against him on Sept. 23, 2010.
In its blog page at multiply. com, PAWS asked readers for information that could lead to Candare’s arrest and posted his picture.
Several readers welcomed the warrant, but court records showed that Candare had posted a P4,000 bail on Nov. 9, 2010.
The Quezon City court set his arraignment on March 21, 2011.
Prosecutor Tobias said Candare was given several opportunities to explain, but he never showed up at the preliminary hearing of the complaint against him.
Instead, his lawyer merely filed a manifestation saying his client should not be charged in court because the complainants failed to back their accusation with the failure to show the corpus delicti or body of the crime.
But Tobias said Candare’s guilt had been established by witnesses, and that he had admitted to torturing and killing the kitten in his blog.