Three students were killed, including a 16-year-old suspected gunman who turned the weapon on himself, in a shooting at a high school in the southern Philippines on Friday, provincial officials said.
The attack took place at Banga National High School in Banga, South Cotabato province. Eight other students were injured, four of them critically. All victims were Grade 9 students aged 14 to 17, said Albert Palencia, mayor of Banga town.
Palencia told Reuters the suspect had sat beside classmates before the attack and told them to go home “because after lunch, I will be executing my plan,” a remark his friends reportedly laughed off since he was known as a joker. After lunch, he opened fire, hitting 10 students before killing himself, Palencia said. Classes across the municipality were suspended following the shooting.
South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo urged parents and gun owners to keep firearms secured and out of reach of minors, saying school security personnel alone cannot monitor thousands of students.
The shooting is the latest in a string of gun violence at Philippine schools this year, where such incidents were previously rare. Last month, a student in Zamboanga livestreamed himself fatally shooting a classmate before taking his own life. In June, three students were killed and about 20 injured when two classmates opened fire at a public high school in Tacloban. The Philippines has relatively strict gun-ownership laws, including background checks and psychological evaluations, though illegal firearms remain in circulation.
