South Cotabato campus attacker’s dad is gun safety advocate

The father of the student who left two schoolmates dead and wounded six others in a shooting at a school campus in Banga, South Cotabato, before taking his own life on Friday, September 18, is a government emergency and disaster response lecturer and an advocate for firearm safety. The incident occurred inside the campus of the Banga National High School in the town center of Banga, one of the 10 towns in South Cotabato and located near the provincial capital, Koronadal City. Local executives separately told reporters on Sunday that the father of the school campus attacker is a project development officer at the regional office of the Department of Education (DepEd) 12, which oversees public elementary, secondary, and tertiary schools across the four provinces and four cities of Region 12, including South Cotabato. According to education officials and local executives in Banga, the father also serves as one of DepEd 12’s focal persons for disaster risk reduction and management operations. Several days before the incident, he had lectured via a radio station in Koronadal City about safety and protecting students from violence on school campuses, as well as the need for programs aimed at supporting their good mental health. According to his officemates, he also occasionally lectures on the safe handling of licensed firearms. Banga Mayor Albert Palencia and South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. separately told reporters on Saturday, September 19, that the attacker's phone contained a Messenger group chat in which he allegedly told classmates that he planned to harm schoolmates on campus. They said the student may have been experiencing family and personal problems, as well as difficulties with his academic performance, although these circumstances remain subject to investigation. A female schoolmate died at the scene from injuries sustained in the shooting, while another male student died at a hospital where he was brought by emergency responders for treatment. Six other students who were injured in the incident are currently confined in different hospitals. One of the injured students, who sustained a serious head injury, is receiving treatment from specialists at the Cotabato Regional Medical Center in Cotabato City, about two hours away from Banga by road. The office of Tamayo, now serving his third term, initially extended essential assistance to the six students in the hospitals through nurse Rolly Aquino, chief of the South Cotabato Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.