By: AC Putong
June 22, 2026, Tacloban City. None of us could have expected the events that unfolded on the day we witnessed the most brutal act of school violence ever seen in the country. I remember a horrifying thought that crossed my mind: Is this the start of school violence in the Philippines?
As much as I wished I was wrong, the following two months proved my worries right. What once seemed like a distant problem more commonly associated with the United States now feels eerily closer to home. And with violent school threats and incidents making headlines more often, I’ve become skeptical of campus security.
Amid the debates, controversies, and social media divisions over how the country should respond to these tragedies, I believe it’s time we carefully evaluate both our immediate actions and long-term solutions.
Since the Tacloban school shooting, we have seen multiple incidents of student-led stabbings, firearms brought into school grounds, school attack threats, and bomb threats, including the Ateneo de Zamboanga school shooting on Aug. 18; even our very own Silliman University witnessed a bomb threat last July 6.
In total, the Philippine National Police recorded 50 school-related incidents involving children in conflict with the law from June 16 to Aug. 20 alone. It is clear that campus violence in the country has worsened, putting all our schools at risk.
We must, therefore, treat school violence as a national threat, for it very much is; students lost their lives, parents lost their children, and entire schools were left traumatized. As much as I hate this reality, these tragedies will only continue to teach us the same hard lesson if we fail to act quickly and decisively.
As early as now, schools should hold campus-wide drills for school violence, strictly implement security measures, and properly discuss and plan emergency procedures as if expecting the worst. In this current situation, we can never be too prepared.
However, these solutions are but countermeasures to the real issues behind the bloodshed: the motives. While the motives behind each incident vary by suspect, they all raise deeper concerns about student support systems, digital literacy, family support, and access to mental health guidance.
Students, parents, families, schools, and the government have a role to play in making sure these incidents are prevented. We can debate all day about which video game to ban and blame just about anything and anyone, but the first step to any solution is open discussion between communities and groups to come up with a shared solution.
So, I implore us Filipinos: now is the time for accountability, prudence, and proper decision-making, for the lives of the youth are at stake. Please, do not let our campuses become the setting for another tragedy. Because as a student, I too am scared.
