Hontiveros denies calling for Gorebox ban, says Senate panel hasn't started hearings

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros has rejected as "fake news" a recent wave of posts that falsely painted her as the lead voice behind a call to ban the video game Gorebox, saying her Senate panel has not held hearings yet on the Tacloban shooting and that she never blamed the incident on a single game. 

The Senate women and children committee, chaired by Hontiveros, opens hearings tomorrow on the June 22 attack at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City, where two students, aged 14 and 15, opened fire and killed three classmates. Both suspects are currently in custody. 

One of the two attackers, a 14-year-old student, used a 9mm Glock owned by his aunt, a policewoman now under restrictive custody.

Hontiveros has framed the inquiry tomorrow as a wide-ranging Senate probe into gun access, parental supervision and online grooming of children. 

The hearing follows the same committee's April inquiry on online radicalization, which prompted Roblox to roll out tighter safeguards for minors in the country. Invited Wednesday are the victims' parents, the shooter's aunt, the Department of Education, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Globe, Smart, the Game Developers Association of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police Tacloban.

"There is no recommendation or findings coming out of the Senate Committee on Women because we are still to hold the hearing tomorrow," Hontiveros said in mixed English and Filipino in a statement on social media Tuesday, June 30. 

"So don't get ahead of yourselves, you who spread fake news over the weekend. Let's stick to the truth. The truth is that there are children who were killed, parents left without their children, and many more children wounded and deeply traumatized," the senator added.

Hontiveros on June 26 had already clarified: "We are not saying that this tragedy was caused by a single game. But if there is an online environment that may have been part of the children's exposure to violence, it is our duty to investigate that."

Why Gorebox is invited

Police said one of the suspects in the Tacloban shooting, the 14-year-old with the alias "Nash," was a heavy Gorebox player. 

Three days after the Tacloban attack, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said it had stopped a separate plot by a 14-year-old to attack Tolosa National High School in Leyte. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said that student was also a Gorebox fan.

Gorebox developer Felix Filip, who is based in Germany, declined the committee's invitation by email, telling the senators the game is rated 18+ and "not intended for, or directed at, minors."  

"But the developer of Gorebox needs to be heard because it seems this NVE, or nihilistic violent extremism, operates this way: there are malign actors who enter the games," Hontiveros said on Tuesday. "They spot and target, they try to befriend the children playing there and then apparently lure them out of the gaming platform and on to other spaces like Messenger, as in the case of the Roblox hearing, where they groom the children for violence."

The Department of Justice was among the first to raise nihilistic violent extremism as the possible motivation of the students who attacked their classmates.

DOJ Spokesperson Polo Martinez said on June 23 the department would not treat the shooting as simple bullying incident. Investigators have since said the two students planned the attack as early as May 1 and believed they would not be jailed because they are minors.

Who actually moved against Gorebox

The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center blocked Gorebox on June 23 as a precaution. 

CICC Undersecretary Renato "Aboy" Paraiso said the block would hold while authorities investigate the game.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has said he is open to legislation regulating violent games.