BY AFP

One of two guns used in a school shooting in Tacloban, Leyte that killed three teens and wounded 13 on Monday belonged to a police officer, an official said.

“The 9mm Glock (pistol) belongs or was issued to a policewoman assigned in (the Eastern Visayas region),” said national police spokesman Allen Rae Co, who added the officer had been taken into custody and was now under investigation.

The other weapon, a .38 caliber pistol, was registered to a security agency in Cebu City, he said.

Over 40 empty shells were found at the scene, police added.

The two alleged shooters, aged 15 and 14, were in custody after firing “randomly” in San Jose National High School, PLt. Evalyn Diaz told AFP of the violence that sent terrified students running for cover.

Irvin Nogar, a 52-year-old social studies teacher, told AFP he was in the middle of a class at the school in Leyte province’s Tacloban City when he heard several “loud gun shots”.

“I saw a shooter walking towards our area, so I told the students to be calm and hide under their desks, and I locked the door… They were crying and in panic.”

Jennelyn Badoria, mother of a slain 15-year-old student, told AFP she believed whoever had given the shooters access to guns must be held accountable.

“I’m asking that the gun owners be charged, because the guns wouldn’t have ended up in the children’s hands if it weren’t for them,” she said in an interview outside the school.

As of late afternoon, no updates had been given on the status of the wounded students, who were receiving treatment at a local hospital. An earlier police tally had placed their number at five.

Diaz, the police lieutenant, said they had heard “bullying was the motive” of the shooting, but that the two alleged assailants were still being questioned.

“They are still in the police station undergoing questioning in the presence of their parents because they are minors,” she said.

A 2022 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report found over half of Filipino boys and 43 percent of girls reported being bullied “at least a few times a month” — more than double the rate of OECD countries.

The Philippine Department of Education issued a statement calling it a “high-alert situation”.

“Our Central Office officials, alongside regional and division office personnel, are active on the ground, coordinating closely with school authorities and law enforcement to secure the premises,” it said.

While school shootings are a rarity in the Philippines, seven students were wounded last month in a knife attack by an older student in Cavite province.

President Ferdinand Marcos’s spokeswoman on Monday said the president had been “saddened by what happened”.

“Anyone, especially the parents of the victims, would feel grief and fear,” Claire Castro told reporters, adding that unspecified measures were being taken to ensure safety at public spaces including schools.

In 2022, three people, including a former city mayor, were killed in a shooting incident before a graduation ceremony at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippine capital.

It was later determined to have been an assassination driven by “personal motives”.

Legal gun ownership is tightly regulated in the Southeast Asian country, but a large black market exists for firearms.