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Zamboanga City Mayor Khymer Adan Olaso told DZMM radio that the suspect, a fellow student, managed to enter the school carrying a high-powered firearm and a .45 calibre pistol. The shooter first fired at a teacher seated at a table but missed before proceeding to another classroom where he fatally shot the victim, according to the mayor. Two other people sustained injuries in the attack and the gunman then turned the weapon on himself, Olaso added in remarks that referenced video footage circulated by local media.
The incident at the high school on the Ateneo de Zamboanga University campus unfolded as hundreds of students were evacuated for safety, a report from the Associated Press stated. University president Ernald Andal confirmed that the situation was under control with no active shooter remaining and no additional fatalities reported. Andal stated that the university does not want any of these things to happen and wishes to prioritise the safety of all its students.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr directed law enforcement agencies to conduct a thorough investigation into the shooting, according to a statement released on Tuesday. The president expressed that authorities must determine what more must be done to prevent another family, another school and another community from suffering the same grief. Marcos added that the nation grieves with the families and the entire school community over a tragedy that should never have happened.
This marks the second fatal school shooting in the Philippines in nearly two months, The Guardian reported. In June at a public high school in Tacloban City, two students opened fire, killing three students and wounding seven others in an incident police linked to a bullying grudge, according to a separate BBC report on that event. Following the Tacloban attack authorities banned the online game Gorebox after determining at least one perpetrator played it regularly and reopened a Senate inquiry into child safety in digital spaces.
Although gun crimes remain common in the Philippines due to the proliferation of unlicensed firearms, school shootings have stayed relatively rare, NBC News reported citing local officials. A 2022 Time magazine analysis found that the country recorded more than 1,200 intentional killings with firearms in 2019 yet lacked mass casualty school incidents on the scale seen elsewhere. The pattern has drawn fresh scrutiny after a comparable episode in Thailand earlier this month in which a student killed nine people including himself and wounded more than 30 others.
The Department of Education informed a Senate committee last month that additional support was required to counter a potential copycat phenomenon, The Guardian noted in its coverage of the Zamboanga case. Subsequent events after the Tacloban shooting included bomb threats, a stabbing and the recovery of firearms and ammunition at various sites, local media accounts indicated. Investigations in Zamboanga continue to examine how the weapons entered the secured campus, Mayor Olaso said.
