DSWD to intervene, help victims of Zamboanga school shooting incident
DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian spoke to media during his visit at Manresa Covered Court in Quezon City on Tuesday 18 August.
Photographed by Sean Magbanua
DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian spoke to media during his visit at Manresa Covered Court in Quezon City on Tuesday 18 August.
Photographed by Sean Magbanua
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Tuesday that it will intervene and provide assistance to the victims following the school shooting incident at Ateneo de Zamboanga University-Junior High School that left two people dead.
“The DSWD is sad that this [shooting incident] happened. We extend our sympathies to those affected, including those [recorded] casualties,” DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said in a media interview.
“We are ready to intervene in whatever way we can to help the victims,” he added.
The incident happened on Tuesday morning (18 August) at Ateneo de Zamboanga University - Junior High School Campus in Barangay Tumaga in Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Sur.
Gatchalian stressed that the DSWD social workers and counselors are ready to provide psychosocial interventions and mental wellness assistance to students affected by the recent shooting incident.
Tacloban and Zamboanga school shooting
The agency said its first priority in responding to school shooting incidents is to assist the victims through immediate psychosocial interventions.
On 22 June 2026, a school shooting happened at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City, Eastern Visayas, leaving three students dead.
Meanwhile, this Tuesday morning, another shooting at Ateneo de Zamboanga University-Junior High School in Zamboanga City claimed life of a student, including the alleged shooter.
According to Gatchalian, the DSWD responds to school shooting incidents by conducting psychosocial interventions and assessments of risk factors involving the victims' families, community issues, individual red flags, and external factors, including nihilistic extremist violence.
“Basta ang importante, those are the four aspects that we look at—the individual and the family, school setting or the community, as well as external factors,” he said.
“[With these assessments], we can make the right intervention kung ano ang kailangang gawin [ng ahensya],” the DSWD Secretary added.
(What is important is that those are the four aspects that we look at—the individual and the family, the school setting or the community, as well as external factors. With these assessments, we can make the right intervention on what needs to be done by the agency.)
The DSWD reiterated that it is ready to provide assistance to students affected by the incident whenever the school requests the agency's help.
