By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet
The DILG expressed great concern over successive school shooting incidents that took place on June 22 (San Jose National High School, Tacloban City, Leyte), August 18 (Ateneo de Zamboanga University, Zamboanga City) and September 18 (Banga National High School, South Cotabato).
In a press conference, Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla shared some initial findings in the ongoing probe on the most recent incident, noting that the perpetrator joined the group where he was groomed to commit crimes back in April.
Secretary Remulla likened the Banga NHS shooting spree to influences of nihilistic violent extremism and Satanism, “Yung bata, hinubog yung utak niya…Parang sinapian na siya ng demonyo at hindi na matanggal yung pinasok na pag-iisip sa kanyang pagkatao.”
He also said that the agency is hard at work to ensure that sites responsible for grooming minors to commit heinous crimes will no longer be accessible nationwide.
As of press time, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has already blocked two such websites in the country.
PNP Acting Chief PIO PCol. Allen Rae Co expounded, “These websites espouses real-world violence, yung sinasabing nago-groom na sila and binibigyan ng parang tasking, starting from yung mga low-level hanggang mapupunta na doon sa active shooter, pamamaril at pananakit na po sa tunay na buhay.”
Apart from blocking access to websites involved in poisoning the minds and hearts of Filipino youth, the DILG official also called for further interventions such as regulation of social media usage for users aged 16 and below, as well as tighter regulations on legal firearms and an enhanced crackdown on loose firearms. (with report from Ryan Lesigues | PTV News)
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