MANILA, Philippines — Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla on Wednesday said preliminary investigation into the brutal school shooting in Tacloban, Leyte leaned toward a case of “bullying gone wrong,” aggravated by the minor suspects’ exposure to a violent online game.
“Ang lumalabas sa initial feedback ay bullying gone wrong. Binubully daw yung dalawang estudyanteng yon at nainfluence sila sa video games (Based on initial feedback, this is a case of bullying gone wrong. The two suspects apparently are students that were influenced by video games),” Remulla told reporters in an interview.
Remulla said in Filipino that they were looking at "the culpability of the aunt and parents from who the firerms were taken." Remulla said one of the two guns used was not registered and bore a fake serial number.
Remulla said, however, that the fact that the kids had access to the guns, makes their owners cuplable. On Monday morning, two Grade 9 students, aged 14 and 15, fired shots at their schoolmates, killing three and injuring 20. Initial investigation points to bullying as the reason behind the rampage.
Bullied since Grade 7, the two appear to have planned the shooting for over a month as seen in alleged screenshots of their chats that went viral on social media.
The two talked about securing firearms and even looked into the juvenile justice law, thinking they would be exempt from criminal liability for being minors.
