Eight others were injured, with four in critical condition, and all the victims were students aged 14 to 17, said Albert Palencia, mayor of Banga town in South Cotabato, where the shooting took place.

The incident follows two fatal gun incidents since June at schools in the Philippines, where school shootings were previously rare.

“The suspect supposedly sat beside his friends and told them to go home ‘because after lunch, I will be executing my plan’. His friends laughed because the shooter was a known joker,” Palencia told Reuters.

“After lunch, he started shooting students. He hit 10 students before killing himself,” Palencia added.

Last month, a student live-streamed himself shooting and killing another student in a classroom in Zamboanga in the country’s south before taking ‌his own life.

In June, at least three students were killed and about 20 others injured in an attack at a public high school in Tacloban, where two classmates opened fire on campus.

The Philippines has relatively strict gun ownership regulations, including background checks and psychological evaluation requirements, although illegal firearms remain in circulation.

The Friday shooting also follows a high-profile incident in Thailand in August, where a student went on a shooting rampage at a school on the outskirts of the capital Bangkok.

South Cotabato governor Reynaldo Tamayo urged parents to ensure guns were kept out of reach of minors.

“We need to be responsible in storing firearms. Gun owners, in particular, must make sure that minors do not have access to them,” Tamayo told Reuters by phone.

“We cannot expect a handful of security personnel to monitor thousands of students. We need to work together because otherwise this will be very difficult for us to address.”

(Reuters) (Featured image from Philippine Red Cross Facebook)

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Thick smoke and extreme heat had prevented firefighters from boarding the ferry,which a manifest said was carrying 117 passengers and 17 crew members when it was engulfed in flames on Wednesday night.

The Philippine Coast Guard revised the number of missing from 86 to 84 after authorities verified two people originally listed on the manifest had not been on board. The number of people rescued stood at 43.

Aerial footage showed a Coast Guard helicopter hovering above the burned ferry, whose upper decks were blackened by fire. While light smoke continued to rise from parts of the vessel, it was noticeably thinner than the thick plumes seen a day earlier. Two firefighters could be seen on an upper deck.

Richard Marceliano, one of the survivors, told GMA News he saw a small amount of smoke that quickly turned into a raging fire and spread through the ferry within seconds. He said he and other passengers spent nearly two hours floating in the sea before they were rescued.

Outside the office of shipowner Atienza Inter-Island Ferries in Manila, frustrated relatives of missing passengers waited for information about their loved ones after failing to get updates from the company by phone.

Evelyn Umpad, 64, said she went to the shipowner’s office after the company failed to answer her repeated calls seeking information about her son and daughter-in-law, who were travelling to the town of Taytay in Palawan to buy land.

“We kept calling but nobody was answering. They took my number and said they would call back, but no one contacted us, so we came here ourselves to find out the situation,” Umpad said. “My appeal is for them to take action and keep us updated.”

The ferry company has said it was fully cooperating with government authorities investigating the incident.

CAUSE REMAINS UNCLEAR

The Coast Guard has deployed five vessels and divers to the area, while army rescue boats, fishermen and private resort owners continued to assist in the search that began on Wednesday night. Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Noemie Cayabyab said the Coast Guard would also deploy a larger vessel.

It remained unclear what started the blaze, which broke out as the ferry neared the end of its more than 20-hour voyage to Coron, a popular tourist spot in northern Palawan. A statement from the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), citing survivor accounts, said two successive explosions were heard from within the ship, which triggered the fire.

The ferry, with capacity for 330 people, was also carrying five motorcycles, an electric vehicle, a forklift, a pickup truck and mostly cargo goods, according to the Coast Guard.

Ferry travel is a common mode of transport in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, where millions of people rely on boats to travel between provinces.

The country has a patchy maritime safety record, and many previous ferry disasters have been linked to overcrowding, rough weather and lax enforcement of safety regulations.

(Reuters)

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said multiple vessels and other assets were deployed to search for survivors, while rescue teams were using drift-modelling tools to identify areas where people may have been carried by currents.

Based on the vessel’s manifest, the number of survivors, currently at 43, and the fatalities reported so far, authorities estimated that more than 80 people remained unaccounted for, although the figures could still change.

Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Noemie Cayabyab said rescuers could not yet enter the vessel, with the search hampered by thick smoke still billowing from the ferry as well as concerns about extreme heat and the risk of explosions.

Drone footage released by the Coast Guard showed the blackened ferry surrounded by clear blue-green waters, with the vessel still generating smoke hours after the fire broke out on Wednesday night.

Cayabyab said the vessel’s manifest listed a total of 117 passengers and 17 crew members. The ferry had departed from Baseco in Manila and was bound for Coron, a popular tourist destination in Palawan known for its diving sites, beaches and island-hopping attractions.

Among the 43 people rescued were two Chilean nationals, said Aileen Ausente, spokesperson for PCG in Palawan, adding that air assets were on standby to help with rescue operations, the weather permitting.

The burned ferry had drifted farther from its original location overnight, carried by currents and winds, adding to the challenges facing rescuers, Cayabyab said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Ferry travel is a common mode of transport in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, where millions of people rely on boats to travel between provinces.

The country has a patchy maritime safety record, and many previous ferry disasters have been linked to overcrowding, rough weather and lax enforcement of safety regulations.

(Reuters)

Education Secretary Sonny Angara said the student had not been seen by teachers at the school in Zamboanga City as a cause for concern, highlighting the difficulty schools and families face in identifying warning signs before such attacks.

“What makes this particularly sad is that we never imagined something like this could happen because the student had a high academic standing,” Angara said while visiting the Ateneo de Zamboanga University. “When we asked his teachers, they said he was not considered a problematic student.”

Angara said preventing school violence required more than fences, CCTV cameras, metal detectors and other security measures.

“Those are important, but it is also important for our communities, starting with school communities, to reach out to our students,” he said.

“What may seem like a small intervention to us can have a big impact on our young people.”

NEW LEGISLATION SUGGESTED

Tuesday’s shooting, which left two students dead, including the shooter, was the second such attack in the Philippines in less than two months. Two others were wounded. It has intensified debate over how to prevent school violence in a country where such incidents are rare.

Authorities said the student livestreamed the attack using a body-worn camera, renewing calls for tighter limits on minors’ access to social media.

Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian called for the passage of legislation that would prohibit children under 16 from using social media, arguing the rapid spread of livestream footage and graphic images risked normalising violence among young people.

Police are still trying to piece together the events leading up to the attack, including establishing a motive, conducting a forensic examination of the student’s electronic devices, and determining how he gained access to his father’s guns, including a .40-caliber pistol issued by the Bureau of Customs.

Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla urged lawmakers to stiffen penalties for gun owners whose weapons are accessed by minors and to revisit laws governing loose firearms.

Police corrected earlier reports and identified the shooter as a Grade 8 student. Officers said they found him dead from a gunshot wound to the head on the fifth floor of the school, lying on his back with a firearm beside him, after he moved upstairs from the fourth floor where the shooting began. Authorities said the evidence indicated he took his own life.

Claire, whose daughter is a college freshman at a separate Ateneo de Zamboanga campus and who asked that only her first name be used, said graphic images, videos, and conflicting reports spread quickly on social media and group chats, adding to parents’ anxiety and confusion.

“We have television and movie ratings. We also need to find ways of doing the same through social media and other online platforms,” she said.

(Reuters)

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr ordered law enforcement agencies to investigate and to determine measures to be taken to prevent violence in schools.

“Our schools are where we entrust our children to learn, to grow and to dream about the lives ahead of them. They must also be among the safest places in our country,” Marcos said in a statement.

The shooting took place at a school attached to the privately-run Ateneo de Zamboanga University in the city of Zamboanga, where the gunman brought a pistol and a rifle onto the school campus and fired at students inside the classroom, according to a preliminary police report.

Video aired by GMA News, with images blurred, showed chaotic scenes inside a classroom with students ducking for cover as several gunshots rang out.

The victim was a male grade 10 student, police said. The gunman, a grade 9 student, killed himself, police said.

Two others were wounded.

The shooting followed an attack in June at a public high school in Tacloban City in the central Philippines in which at least three students were killed and about 20 others injured when two of their schoolmates opened fire on campus.

School ​shootings are rare in the Philippines, which has relatively strict gun ownership regulations, including background ‌checks ⁠and psychological evaluation requirements, although illegal firearms remain in circulation.

News channel ANC showed footage of students and parents gathering outside the school gates with some armed police and soldiers present. Crime scene investigators were seen arriving at the school.

The school is a five-storey building on an 8-hectare (19.8 acre) site that houses the university’s grade school and junior high school students, according to its website.

The incident came less than 10 days after a high-profile incident in Thailand, where a student went on a shooting rampage at a school on the outskirts of the capital Bangkok.

(Reuters)

The quake hit at 7:37am local time (2:37am Cyprus time) off the coast of Mindanao, at a depth of about 35 kilometres, according to the United States Geological Survey. The epicentre was located approximately 56 kilometres south of General Santos, one of the largest cities in the region. An initial magnitude estimate of 8.1 was later revised down to 7.8 by the USGS.

“Some buildings collapsed. Some houses also became rubble,” said Master Sergeant Robert Dagon, a police officer in General Santos.

Videos posted to social media showed buildings collapsing. Authorities in areas closest to the epicentre continued to assess the situation.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) said a tsunami could develop “within the next three hours” and strike coastlines in the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan. The PTWC said waves of one to three metres were possible along Philippine coasts, and waves of 0.3 to one metre along the coasts of Indonesia and Malaysia.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency issued its own tsunami warning along coastlines stretching from the southern island of Okinawa to areas east of Tokyo. Waves were expected to begin arriving on Japanese shores at around 11:30am local time (5:30am Cyprus time) and were not expected to exceed one metre.

The Philippines lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of intense seismic and volcanic activity where powerful earthquakes occur frequently.

(Reuters)

Reuters witnesses heard the gunshots but said it was unclear what was happening or who had fired them. More than ten military personnel in camouflage fatigues, some carrying assault rifles, had earlier arrived at the Senate building, Reuters journalists saw. Military officials could not immediately be reached for comment and it was unclear if other security personnel were inside the building.

Local journalist Dale G. Israel told Philenews English that the shootout was between agents of the National Bureau of Investigation, who were attempting to arrest Dela Rosa, and the Senate’s Sergeant-at-Arms, who was defending him.

Earlier on Wednesday, Dela Rosa posted a video on Facebook from his Senate office saying his arrest was imminent and urging people to mobilise to prevent his handover to the ICC. “I am appealing to you, I hope you can help me. Do not allow another Filipino to be brought to The Hague,” he said.

The ICC unsealed an arrest warrant for Dela Rosa on May 11, originally issued under seal on November 6, 2025. He is alleged to have committed the crime against humanity of murder between July 2016 and April 2018, during which no less than 32 persons were killed. At a Senate hearing in October 2024, Duterte himself described Dela Rosa as one of the commanders of his death squad, according to reports of the hearing.

Dela Rosa, 64, was Duterte’s top lieutenant overseeing a crackdown during which thousands of alleged drug dealers were killed, with human rights groups accusing police of systematic murders and cover-ups. Police reject the allegations, saying the more than 6,000 killed in anti-drugs operations were all armed and had resisted arrest.

Dela Rosa was pictured by local media fleeing into the Senate building on Monday as police sought to detain him. He has remained in his legislative office since then. When local investigative unit officers failed to arrest him, riot police surrounded the Senate compound. More than 100 supporters of Dela Rosa and Duterte gathered outside the building overnight, waving the national flag and blocking nearby roads, before being dispersed by police.

Dela Rosa, a former Davao City Police Director and subsequently chief of the Philippine National Police, is accused of responsibility for the crime against humanity of murder through his involvement in a common plan to kill alleged criminals in the Philippines. The ICC has named eight co-perpetrators in the case. Former President Duterte was arrested and transferred to The Hague in March 2025 and is currently in detention awaiting trial.

This story is developing. Philenews English will update as more information becomes available.

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The witness reported hearing at least five shots initially, with the total rising to more than a dozen. Gunfire was continuing to be heard, according to the witness.

No further details were immediately available. This story is developing.

Naveed Akram, 24, and his father Sajid, 50, flew into the Philippines on 1 November and stayed until 28 November, Philippine immigration officials have confirmed. They told border officers they planned to visit Davao, a major city in the country’s militant-plagued south.

NSW police chief Mal Lanyon said detectives are trying to establish what the pair did during those four weeks. Officers discovered homemade bombs and two crude Islamic State flags in Naveed’s car, which was parked near Sunday’s shooting at the Hanukah festival on Bondi beach.

“The reasons why they went to the Philippines, and the purpose of that, and where they went when they were there, is under investigation at the moment,” Lanyon said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said evidence suggests the rampage was “inspired by a terrorist organisation, by Isis”.

Police shot Sajid dead at the scene. Naveed survived with critical injuries and remains under guard in hospital. Another 25 victims were still receiving treatment on Tuesday.

Investigators are now asking whether warning signs were missed. The elder Akram obtained a firearms licence in 2023 and bought six guns, despite his son previously attracting attention from Australia’s domestic spy agency.

Lanyon corrected media reports claiming Sajid first got a gun licence ten years ago. Records show he applied in 2015 but never submitted a photo, so the application expired. He tried again in 2020 and was finally approved in 2023.

That approval came years after ASIO spent six months in 2019 looking at Naveed over his suspected links to other people of interest. The ABC has reported the investigation involved an alleged Islamic State cell. But spies concluded he posed no threat, Albanese said on Monday, and there’s no evidence authorities tracked him after that probe ended.

Around that time, when Naveed was still a teenager, he appeared in several YouTube videos for a group called the Street Dawah Movement. The organisation set up stalls at Sydney railway stations to talk to passers-by about Islam. In one clip, Naveed tells two teenagers that prayer matters more than “anything else that you have to do. Work, school.”

The group issued a statement on Tuesday distancing itself from him. It said Naveed turned up regularly at its weekend events in 2019 and helped make some videos, but was never a member and they haven’t heard from him since. Separate media reports have tied him to a different preaching group run by hardline cleric Wisam Haddad, though Haddad’s solicitor said his client “vehemently denies any knowledge of or involvement in the shootings”.

After finishing technical college that year, Naveed trained as a bricklayer, according to Guardian Australia. He made the Philippines trip after telling his boss he’d broken his hand boxing and couldn’t work until 2026, then asked to cash out all his leave and entitlements.

Security academics say militant groups including Islamic State and Abu Sayyaf operate in the southern Philippines, though reaching them would be difficult for foreign tourists. Clarke Jones from the Australian National University, who has worked with jailed extremists in the Philippines, said the groups are geographically isolated and dangerous to access. However, he noted commercial military training courses unconnected to terrorism are available there.

His ANU colleague Levi West outlined three possible reasons someone planning an attack might visit the Philippines: to train with jihadist groups in the south, to take part in legitimate tactical courses, or to “indulge themselves in a kind of last hurrah before they came back and switched into preparation mode”.

NSW Premier Chris Minns wants police to have power to block gun licences based on intelligence reports rather than just criminal convictions. “If we can craft a law that the police commissioner can say, ‘I’ve got concerns about this person, I don’t want them having access to a gun’, notwithstanding the fact they don’t have a criminal record, that is the kind of legislation we want to see,” he said.

Albanese flagged possible reforms including caps on how many firearms people can own, restrictions on weapon types, citizenship requirements for gun ownership, and faster completion of a national firearms database.

Australian Federal Police boss Krissy Barrett said investigators believe no one else was involved in what appears to be an Islamic State-inspired attack, but cautioned “this could change given it is early in our investigation”. She said evidence seized has given detectives “a swathe of information that has enabled them to make this initial assessment about the alleged individuals involved and their motivations”.

(Source: The Guardian)

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