By Wilnard Bacelonia
MANILA – The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has gotten hold of a person who may be connected to the deadly school shooting in Banga, South Cotabato, and separately apprehended a suspected online groomer in Cebu, its chief said Thursday.
NBI Director Melvin Matibag disclosed the developments during the Senate deliberation on the Department of Justice’s proposed 2027 budget as he discussed the bureau’s monitoring of violent online communities operating in the deep and dark web.
“Yesterday, we were able to get hold of one of the individuals na (who is) somehow related to what happened in South Cotabato,” he said.
Matibag did not identify the individual or specify the person’s role in the Sept. 18 attack at Banga National High School.
The disclosure came a day after Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said authorities were pursuing a person suspected of influencing the minor shooter through online conversations and had already identified the person’s location in the Philippines.
The Banga shooting left three students dead, including the shooter, and six others wounded.
Authorities have been investigating the student’s participation in an online community and whether it played a role in the attack.
In the same hearing, Matibag disclosed a separate operation in Cebu.
“Yesterday also, we made an apprehension of one of suspected groomers from Cebu,” he said.
He did not identify the suspect or say whether the Cebu operation was directly connected to the Banga case.
Matibag said the NBI has been monitoring groups operating in less visible portions of the Internet as authorities investigate online grooming and the spread of violent content among young people.
The investigation has taken on greater urgency after the Banga incident became the country’s third fatal school shooting since June, following attacks in Tacloban and Zamboanga. Authorities have since stepped up monitoring of online threats and possible grooming of minors into violence. (PNA)
