Man charged for setting wife on fire

Government prosecutors filed criminal charges the other day before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) against a 27-year-old man who doused his wife with kerosene and set her on fire about three years ago.

Assistant City Prosecutor Elena Milanie Baldeo filed charges against Reynaldo Amper, a resident of Lapu-Lapu Street, Malabon City, for violating Republic Act 9262, which provides stiff penalties for violent acts against women and children. Baldeo set Amper’s bail at P200,000.       

The complaint was filed by Amper’s wife, Maria Theresa, 26, of Magsaysay Village in Tondo, Manila, who claimed her husband left her for another woman after the incident.

Court records said that during an altercation on May 29, 2005, Amper emptied a can of kerosene on Ma. Theresa then set her on fire. A neighbor rushed the victim to the hospital for treatment.

Maria Theresa told investigators that despite the fact that she needed major surgery for the third-degree burns she sustained, she did not hear anything from her husband.

The victim said when she finally located her husband almost two years after the incident, she discovered him living with another woman in Malabon City.

Baldeo also filed charges against Amper for abandonment and failure to provide financial support to his legal wife, but dismissed the complaint for concubinage filed by Maria Theresa against Amper and his present live-in partner for lack of jurisdiction.

Baldeo recommended bail at P24,000 for the other charge.    – Sandy Araneta