Prompt action sought on repetitive school violence

MANILA, Philippines — Senators are calling for immediate action following another school shooting incident, this time at a high school in South Cotabato that left three students dead on Friday.

“I call on the executive department, the Department of Education, the Philippine National Police and other law enforcement agencies: this is becoming repetitive! Do something about it,” Sen. Bong Go said.

Go filed Senate Bill 2413 or the Safe Schools and Violence Prevention Bill, which provides for a National Safe Schools Framework covering anti-bullying measures, mental health support, campus access control, risk assessment and incident command for students and personnel, among others.

The bill is pending before the Senate committee on basic education chaired by Sen. Bam Aquino.

In his statement, Aquino condemned the latest school violence, which came on the heels of similar shootings in Tacloban City in June and in Zamboanga City in August.

“We are calling on the government to quickly ensure the safety of our schools and communities for the welfare of students and teachers,” he said.

Aquino is seeking the passage of the Comprehensive School Safety Act, which aims to require schools to bolster security by hiring more personnel and installing more closed-circuit televisions and metal detectors.

For her part, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said school shootings “cannot be our new normal.”

Authorities, Hontiveros said, should focus on different facets of child development, factoring in mental health, gun access and the prevalence of social media.

She also reiterated her warning on the dangers of nihilistic violent extremism (NVE), seen by law enforcers as a factor that triggered school shootings in Tacloban and Zamboanga.

Hontiveros cited the proposed SAGIP Bata Act, which seeks to require online platforms to appoint a Philippine representative authorized to receive subpoenas, take down orders, request for account information and other directives from the government.

“But one measure will never be enough,” Hontiveros said. “The government needs to do a real accounting of how we are failing our children.”

Neglect

For the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), the shooting at the Banga National High School (BNHS) in South Cotabato exposed government neglect of public schools.

“Let us not blame teachers or video games for this tragedy simply to cover up the government’s negligence. We are in dire need of guidance counselors as well as mental health and psychosocial programs, yet where are they? Priority is instead given to drills and the deployment of police forces – who are also known for sowing violence,” ACT Philippines chairperson Ruby Bernardo said.

She added that the prevalence of school violence cannot be separated from the chronic neglect the education sector has been suffering for long.

She noted that under the 2026 budget, the Department of Education created 10,000 School Counselor Associate (SCA) I positions translating to roughly one counselor associate for every 2,600 learners nationwide.

She said that while DepEd reported around 5,000 registered guidance counselors in early 2026, no more than 1,000 were actually employed across roughly 50,000 public schools.

“With only one counselor for every 2,600 students nationwide – a situation where the number of counselors and school security personnel is already woefully inadequate – education funding is set to be slashed further,” Bernardo said.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) has promised to shoulder the hospital bills of the victims in the BNHS shooting.

“We will assist. We will pay the bills. We will put it under MAIFIP (Medical Assistance for Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients) and the President will take care of it,” DOH Undersecretary Mary Ann Maestral said.

The DOH is also deploying mental health teams to handle cases of trauma among students and teachers.

“We take care of the mental health also, we have teams for that. They are ready. It depends where do the teachers want the debriefing to take place,” Maestral said. — Rhodina Villanueva