South Cotabato school shooting kills 3, hurts 6

BANGA, SOUTH COTABATO — Another shooting rampage in school involving a teenage attacker, this time in this town some 15 kilometers from the provincial capital of Koronadal City, left three students dead and six others wounded on Friday.

The 1 p.m. attack at Banga National High School was the third fatal campus attack in as many months following those at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City on June 22, which killed two, and at Ateneo de Zamboanga University Junior High School in Zamboanga City on Aug. 18, which killed three.

Like the Ateneo shooting, the suspect in the Banga incident also allegedly shot and killed himself later.

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READ: Marcos condemns, orders thorough probe into South Cotabato shooting

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South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo said a Grade 10 student was taken to a local hospital after suffering from hyperventilation as a result of the shooting incident.

Rolly Aquino, head of the South Cotabato Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), said a female student was among the three confirmed dead.

One of the male fatalities, according to Tamayo, is the suspected shooter, a Grade 9 student, who turned the gun on himself after indiscriminately firing at students inside a Grade 9 classroom.

Tamayo said the shooter used a “very well-maintained” handgun and acted alone.

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As news of the violence spread, parents rushed to the school to help secure their children. Some were seen on videos helping bring wounded students to local hospitals.

Students taken to South Cotabato Provincial Hospital had bullet wounds in their back, legs and torso.

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A father of one of the wounded students told Bombo Radyo Koronadal that his son had three bullet wounds in his back, leg and arm.

“He is undergoing surgery right now because one of the bullets is still inside his body,” he said.

The PDRRMO list indicated that the six wounded are age 14, four of them in Grade 9.

Father owns gun

Banga Mayor Albert Palencia, in an interview with Bombo Radyo Koronadal, said the suspected shooter was a Grade 9 student armed with a Glock 9mm pistol owned by his father, a government safety officer who is a practical shooting enthusiast.

“The child regularly accompanies his father in the shooting range and knows how to use a gun,” Palencia said.

The mayor, who went to the school right after the incident, said he also learned from the suspected shooter’s classmates that he was frustrated with his grades.

Palencia said that before the rampage, the shooter had warned two friends of his plan to do it “right after lunch.”

It was not immediately known how the shooter managed to sneak the handgun into the school campus, which had four security guards on duty on Friday.

As clips of the aftermath of the Banga shooting started circulating on social media, the Department of Education (DepEd) in the Soccsksargen (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos) region appealed to the public to stop spreading or commenting on the video.

In a video posted to Facebook and confirmed by Agence France-Presse (AFP), a man can be seen carrying what appears to be a wounded child from the school, rushing him into the sidecar of a waiting motorbike.

“Respect the victims and their families: Circulating this material causes severe trauma and violates their privacy during a painful time,” DepEd said.

“Let us act responsibly and show basic decency do not participate in spreading this content any further,” it added.

Palencia suspended classes in all levels in the town until Monday. In nearby Surallah town, Mayor Pedro Matinong Jr. issued a similar order.

Campus safety

In separate statements, Akbayan Reps. Chel Diokno and Percival Cendaña, along with Mamamayang Liberal Rep. Leila de Lima, said the latest school attack in Banga only reinforces their calls for reforms and efforts to make schools safe places. De Lima said.

“This is deeply saddening and frustrating. These kinds of nightmares about a repetitive cycle of violence should not be a normal occurrence. Everyone has to wake up to the reality—from homes, schools, LGUs (local government units), and other government agencies along with communities—and immediately address why these things happen,” she said.

“During these times, there is no room for lapses or weakened safeguards, especially when the safety of our students is at stake,” De Lima added.

Diokno appealed to his colleagues in the House to move quicker toward passing his House Bill No. 10058, or the proposed Child Safety Against Gun Violence Act, which seeks to strengthen measures that protect children in schools.

READ: School shooting ‘cannot be our new normal’ – Hontiveros

“The latest gun violence inside our schools shows the need for a comprehensive reform to ensure the safety of our schools and to stop students from having access to firearms and other weapons,” Diokno said.

Cendaña echoed the same call, saying that HB 10058 will turn schools into gun-free zones.

“It is very disturbing that these incidents of gun violence inside our schools are becoming common. I fear we are seeing an epidemic of gun violence in our schools,” he said.

School-related violence has seen an uptick in the country over the recent months.

Tacloban, Zamboanga incidents

On June 22, three students were killed and 20 others were wounded and injured when two Grade 9 students opened fire inside San Jose National High School campus in Tacloban City, Leyte.

Both male suspects, age 14 and 15, both of whom were Grade 9 students, were arrested on the same day. A Glock pistol and a .38-caliber revolver were seized from them.

The two minors identified in the case are being handled under the country’s juvenile justice system.

The 14-year-old suspect is exempt from criminal liability because of his age, although authorities may still impose appropriate intervention and rehabilitation measures under the juvenile justice law.

The 15-year-old companion, meanwhile, was earlier charged with three counts of murder, three counts of frustrated murder and multiple counts of serious physical injuries.

Both minors remain in the custody of a rehabilitation facility managed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

On Sept. 3, Justice Undersecretary Ian Norman Dato said that Tacloban City prosecutors had ordered the filing of frustrated murder and attempted murder charges against the 15-year-old boy who was determined to have “acted with discernment” when he brought a gun to the school and opened fire.

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These new filings are in addition to five cases—three counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder—that were earlier filed against him on July 13 before the family court of the Tacloban Regional Trial Court. — WITH REPORTS FROM GABRIEL PABICO LALU, INQUIRER RESEARCH AND AFP /das