Metro Manila, Philippines – Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said that another planned attack on a school, which he described as a shooting or stabbing, was prevented in Tolosa, Leyte.
“At 8 o’clock last night, Senator Bam Aquino called me up and gave me a tip that there was chatter in Tacloban that there was an impending mass shooting that was about to occur,” Remulla said on Thursday, June 25.
He read out a message supposedly hinting at the attack: “Hello, send this to your friends. Yo, from Tolosa, prepare yourselves, especially you as you owe me. Get ready. I will disrupt the school. You won’t know me, but you will recognize me. There’s no time, no day. Be prepared for whoever gets shot or stabbed. We don’t care, good luck to you at Tolosa Leyte National High School.”
Remulla said the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) investigated the threat and tracked down the suspect — a 14-year-old Grade 10 student of Tolosa National High School.
Initial investigations stated that the student made multiple social media accounts to spread the message online. Remulla said the student’s family had no access to firearms.
Remulla said it was possible that the student was influenced by recent cases of school violence, most notably the Tacloban school shooting on Monday.
He said the student is not facing charges and was brought to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
