17-year-old student ordered to answer to poisoning charges

A Quezon City prosecutor ordered a 17-year-old student of the Philippine Science High School (PSHS) to answer to charges that he laced a water jug with a toxic substance that left a fourth-year high school student hospitalized for over a month.

The respondent, who faces frustrated homicide charges, was ordered to submit a counter-affidavit not later than May 3.

"I’m still in the process of evaluating the complaint. But I still have to see the counter-affidavit of the respondents before I can make any resolution on the case," Prosecutor Ferdinand Baylon said in an interview.

The complainant was also instructed to bring the witnesses, mostly classmates of the respondents, to the prosecutors’ office on April 18.

PSHS officer-in-charge Jessamyn Joson said the boy, who was found to have laced the victim’s water jug with mercury nitrate, was not allowed to march during their graduation last week. He has denied the accusations, saying he was being framed.

Mercury nitrate is a highly toxic, colorless liquid or white soluble crystalline compound of mercury used to treat fur for making felt and is still used occasionally to determine chloride levels in the blood.

The Department of Education (DepEd), meanwhile, is withholding comment on the incident. It was busy yesterday lobbying for the appointment of Undersecretary Fe Hidalgo as the next Education Secretary.

In a phone interview, Gino Camilon, project development officer assigned to the communications division of DepEd, told The STAR that the DepEd would not comment on the PSHS incident since the state-run high school is not within its jurisdiction. It operates under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

The Star tried to contact DepEd spokesman Assistant Secretary Camilo Montesa for comment on the incident. However, Camilon also said Montesa had sent a message saying the DepEd would not comment at this time.

Hidalgo was in Australia when news of the PSHS incident was published in The Star the other day.

DepEd’s communication’s division has been avoiding comment on critical issues concerning schools recently and instead has issued "unsigned" statements concerning problems that might be created if President Arroyo appoints a politician as the country’s new Education Secretary. — With Sandy Araneta