MANILA, Philippines—The University of the Philippines is in the process of reviewing its code of conduct for students, even as one of them was convicted recently by a Quezon City court of brutally killing a stray cat, an act the student bragged about on his blog in 2009.
In an interview, UP president Alfredo Pascual said a review of the Code of Student Conduct and Discipline had been ongoing even before he assumed office in February.
But Pascual said he was not aware of any provisions in the code about what to do with a student convicted by a court of law.
“There is no provision in the code that a violation of Philippine laws could lead to a separate penalty under the Code of Student Conduct and Discipline,” he told the Inquirer on Saturday.
Pascual said the case of Joseph Carlo Candare, a physics major who was convicted last week of violating the Animal Welfare Act, was a benchmark.
Pascual said a student may be subjected to penalties ranging from a reprimand to the maximum expulsion for violating UP rules and regulations.
“But, of course, our students are expected to obey UP’s rules and the laws of the land,” Pascual said.
Candare was ordered to pay a P2,000 fine and work in an animal shelter by Judge Catherine Manodon of Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 40 who found him guilty of torturing and killing a stray cat on the Diliman campus in 2009.
Candare, then 19, then bragged on his blog that he killed the feline named “Teteng,” thereby unleashing a barrage of outraged comments over the Internet.
Candare pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges of violating the Animal Welfare Act, but the court convicted him anyway.
Candare will be rendering service for two to six months at the Philippine Animal Welfare Society, the animal rights group that filed the case against him and which takes in stray dogs and cats.