A devastating targeted attack at a central Philippine high school has left three students dead and seven others injured after two teenage boys opened fire inside a classroom, in what law enforcement officials describe as an extremely rare school shooting for the Southeast Asian nation. The incident, which unfolded at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City, has prompted urgent national calls for stronger gun safety practices at home and improved student welfare monitoring in schools, after investigators confirmed the attack was driven by a long-held grudge over persistent bullying.
The two suspects, aged 14 and 15, carried out the attack with two illegally accessed firearms: a .38 caliber revolver and a 9mm pistol that was registered to a police officer, who is a relative of one of the teenagers and has since been taken into custody for failing to secure her weapon. Following the shooting, one suspect was arrested at the scene within minutes, while the second turned himself in to authorities a short time later.
Colonel Allen Rae Co, national spokesperson for the Philippine National Police, told reporters on Monday that the teen perpetrators walked directly into the classroom without warning and opened fire immediately. As of the earliest stages of the investigation, it remains unclear whether the pair’s intended targets were actually present in the room at the time of the attack. Of the seven injured people, three suffered direct gunshot wounds, while four were hurt during the panicked evacuation that followed the start of the shooting.
A key emerging detail from the investigation has raised serious questions about whether the attack could have been prevented. Co confirmed that investigators discovered violent social media content posted by one of the suspects, showing the teen firing a gun in advance of the attack. He described these posts as clear warning signs, or “red flags,” that were overlooked by people around the teens.
“This is very obviously red flags… we’re not putting blame on anybody, but if anybody was able to monitor these red flags, this could have been prevented,” Co told reporters.
Gun violence remains a persistent challenge across the Philippines, but targeted shootings at schools are exceptionally uncommon. Local law enforcement confirmed this is the first recorded school shooting in Tacloban City in modern history. The tragedy has sparked outrage from victims’ families, who are demanding accountability for how the teenagers gained access to deadly weapons.
Jennelyn Badoria, the mother of a 15-year-old student killed in the attack, told Agence France-Presse that anyone who allowed the minors to access the firearms must face legal consequences. “I’m asking that the gun owners be charged, because the guns wouldn’t have ended up in the children’s hands if it weren’t for them,” Badoria said in an interview outside the school campus.
Local police officials have echoed that call, urging all Filipino households that own firearms to take greater responsibility for securing their weapons. Evalyn Diaz, a representative of Tacloban City Police, urged parents “to be more responsible, hide their firearms, make sure those are properly hidden, talk to their children” about the dangers of unsecured weapons.
National leaders and education authorities have responded to the tragedy with statements of grief and a commitment to systemic review. Claire Castro, spokesperson for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., said the president had been deeply “saddened by what happened” and acknowledged that the attack would spark profound grief and fear among all affected families. The Philippine Department of Education released a statement expressing “deep concern” and calling for national prayer for the victims and their families.
Working alongside national police, the education ministry has launched a full review of national school safety protocols, anti-bullying policies, and student mental health and behavioral monitoring systems, to identify gaps that allowed this attack to occur.
Philippine national police data shows that overall gun violence across the country has declined steadily in recent years, with just under 5,000 recorded gun-related incidents nationwide in 2024. Tacloban City, located on Leyte Island in the central Visayas region roughly one hour’s flight from the national capital Manila, is home to roughly 250,000 people. The city is still recovering from the devastation of Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, which killed more than 6,000 people across the region and pushed thousands of households into deeper poverty.