The shooting took place at a school in the town of Banga in the southern province of South Cotabato, killing three students aged between 14 and 17 and injuring eight more, provincial officials said. Among the injured, four remain in critical condition.
According to Albert Palencia, the mayor of Banga, the suspect had sat beside his friends during lunch and warned them that he would “execute my plan” after the break. His friends reportedly laughed, describing him as a known joker. After lunch, the teenager began firing, hitting ten students before turning the gun on himself, Palencia told Reuters.
The incident follows a spate of school shootings in the Philippines that were previously rare. In June, an attack at a public high school in Tacloban left at least three students dead and about 20 injured when two classmates opened fire. Last month, a student in Zamboanga live‑streamed a shooting that ended with the gunman killing another student and then himself.
The Philippines maintains relatively strict gun ownership laws that require background checks and psychological evaluations, yet illegal firearms continue to circulate. South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo urged parents to store guns securely, emphasizing that “gun owners must make sure that minors do not have access to them,” and calling for collective responsibility to protect students.
The recent shootings echo a high‑profile incident in August in Thailand, where a student carried out a rampage at a school on the outskirts of Bangkok. Regional authorities are now grappling with how to prevent further tragedies in schools that have traditionally been considered safe spaces.