OBLIQUE OBSERVATIONS
By Atty. Gilberto Lauengco, J.D.
Columbine High School. Sandy Hook Elementary School. Parkland High School. These places in the U.S. and other places in the world like Santa Maria in Chile and Izhevsk in Russia will forever be synonymous with incidents of mass shootings of students inside schools by their fellow students.
In the Philippines, we have so far been lucky that we have not yet experienced an indiscriminate rampage-style mass shooting or killing in our schools, similar to the places I have mentioned.
Unfortunately, that may change soon. Recently this month, the Philippine National Police (PNP) had revealed that they had stopped and thwarted an alleged planned shooting and killing involving seven youths (five boys and two girls aged 7 to 17). Apparently, the youths were allegedly influenced by members of an online gaming community which encouraged nihilistic violence. Through English-speaking chat forums these youths were “mind-conditioned” by certain extremist elements through violent content and images of previous mass shootings and recruited to be part of this movement. Swayed by this doctrine, the youths had alleged made plans to execute a mass shooting and fire bombing in areas within the Calabarzon area.
Foreign law enforcement alerted local authorities that certain Facebook users (presumably these youths) were discussing plans to carry out attacks using firearms, Molotov cocktails and even fire extinguishers to blind victims. Based on the reports of the foreign law enforcement authorities, our local PNP “rescued “ these youths and placed them in the proper facilities. Digital forensic examination of their phones uncovered photos of the items they were planning to purchase for their plan, including body armor, firearms, helmets and Nazi-related paraphernalia.
The PNP has sounded the alarm and advised parents and guardians to monitor the online activities of minors. Many sociologists opine that despite the presence of firearms in the country certain cultural aspects of our country act as barriers to indiscriminate shooting. They cite the concept of “hiya,” filial relationship, catholic upbringing and a focus on other problems. Experts say Filipinos kill for money, politics, property, hate or revenge but for a nihilistic ideology yet. However, some say it is only a matter of time. With constant exposure to foreign ideology online it is a wonder why this happened only now.
In other countries, increased online surveillance is now the norm. Public Safety Education must now be practiced, emphasizing ‘Run, Hide and Tell’. Hardening targets with police and security presence, reviewing protocols and encouraging an active parent teacher monitoring association should now be emphasized. Our kids are not safe anymore. We must now take this threat seriously.
