Horror in Philippines School Shooting: 3 Dead, 5 Injured

At least three people were killed and five others wounded on Monday in a rare school shooting in the central Philippines. The incident occurred around 9 a.m. local time at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City, Leyte province. Police have yet to determine a motive for the mass shooting. “The victims were immediately brought to the nearest medical facility for appropriate medical treatment and intervention,” regional police said in a statement. State-run television network PTV reported that two individuals, both said to be students, had been arrested, with one taken into custody at the scene. “The PNP (Philippine National Police) has arrested the suspects. They acted swiftly,” presidential spokesperson Claire Castro told reporters. While school shootings are uncommon in the Philippines, gun violence is prevalent in politics. In 2022, three people, including a former mayor, were killed in a shooting ahead of a graduation ceremony at Ateneo de Manila University in the capital, Manila. That incident was later confirmed to be a targeted killing driven by “personal motives”. Legal gun ownership is tightly regulated in the Southeast Asian nation, but a large black market for firearms exists.