NATION

DepEd dismisses father of South Cotabato school gunman

Jerod Orcullo · Sep 22, 2026, 3:21 PM

YELLOW tape now surrounds another crime scene of a shooting incident in a high school. The teen student who opened fire and killed at least two fellow students on 18 September in Banga town, South Cotabato, eventually turned the gun on himself, officials said. It is the country’s third deadly campus attack since June. — Photograph courtesy of STR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

The Department of Education confirmed Tuesday that the father of the student behind the deadly shooting at Banga National High School in South Cotabato has been dismissed from his post following the incident.

The disclosure came during plenary deliberations on DepEd’s proposed P975.96-billion budget for 2027 at the House of Representatives, where Akbayan Party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña questioned the agency about its policies on firearm ownership among employees.

Authorities said the gun used in the 18 September attack belonged to the student’s father, a DepEd employee assigned to the agency’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management office. The shooting left two students and the gunman dead and injured eight others.

Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla earlier said the father owned three licensed firearms and that the weapon used in the attack was not sufficiently secured to prevent his son from accessing it.

“He had three licensed firearms that were not secured enough that the child was able to access and take the gun,” Remulla said in Filipino.

Reports from local officials said the firearm had been stored inside a secured vault that the student forcibly opened before bringing the weapon to school.

During the budget deliberations, Cendaña asked whether DepEd has an internal administrative policy requiring officials and employees who own guns to follow specific safeguards beyond existing firearms laws.

Davao de Oro Rep. Maria Carmen Zamora, sponsoring the DepEd budget, said the department has no such internal policy.

“As to internal policy of the department, there is no internal policy for the department but the department subjects it to the discretion of every employee, every personnel of DepEd to adhere with existing laws on proper handling of firearms,” Zamora said.

Cendaña said the incident underscored the need to examine whether additional safeguards were necessary as schools confront a series of violent incidents involving firearms.

“We take note of that observation,” Zamora responded, adding that DepEd remained committed to strengthening measures aimed at providing a safer environment for learners.

The South Cotabato attack was the third deadly school shooting reported in the Philippines since June, following incidents in Tacloban and Zamboanga. Reuters reported that the firearms used in the three cases had come from relatives of the young assailants, raising concerns over how licensed gun owners secure weapons inside their homes.

The latest incident has also prompted authorities to investigate how the Banga student planned the attack and whether warning signs were missed.

Local officials said the student had warned classmates beforehand, while investigators were examining his online activity and exposure to violent content.

The cases have intensified calls for stricter enforcement of firearm-storage rules and closer coordination among schools, families and law enforcement agencies to prevent minors from gaining access to guns.