The Tacloban school shooting tragedy urges need to protect children from the normalization of violence

27 June 2026

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict joins the nation in grieving the death of three students in the June 22 school shooting in Tacloban City. To their families, classmates, teachers, and the whole San Jose National High School community, we offer our deepest sympathies. A school day should not end with parents being told that their child is gone forever.

There are moments when the nation must pause before it speaks and passes judgment. Our duty first is compassion. Our next duty is to ascertain the facts. And then, with clarity and courage, our duty is prevention so that this kind of violence does not happen again.

We acknowledge that the investigation is still underway and our authorities must be given the space to establish the facts, determine motive, trace how firearms came into the hands of minors, before pursuing accountability under the law. We must do these carefully, with respect for the rights of children in conflict with the law and for the victims whose lives were violently taken from them.

Still, even before the investigation is completed, the tragedy already points to a danger we can no longer ignore. Too many children and youth today are growing up in spaces where violence is consumed, shared, laughed at, rehearsed, and slowly accepted as normal. In some spaces, deaths of youths are even celebrated as something heroic, if only to sustain a dying yet violent political agenda.

This is why the national discussion on terror grooming, radicalization, and violent extremism should not be brushed aside as abstract or distant from ordinary Filipino families. These issues no longer belong exclusively to the battlefield, to the armed fighting in the countryside, or to organized terrorist networks. More and more, it is becoming clear that the pathways to violence are now passing through classrooms, chat groups, online communities, social media feeds, and homes where actors continuously concoct styles and methods to recruit children and youth.

The NTF-ELCAC strongly supports Senate Bill 1366, House Bill 7460, House Bill 05484, and House Bill 07204, the proposed Terror Grooming and Radicalization Prevention Act, which seek to prevent terrorism at its source by penalizing terror grooming and radicalization, protecting vulnerable sectors, and vs disrupting recruitment pathways before individuals become involved in terrorist activities. The purpose is not to criminalize children or to demonize students, activism, or free expression. The proposed measures are intended to fill a perceived gap in the country's counterterrorism framework by addressing the earliest stages of terrorist recruitment. Rather than focusing solely on terrorist acts, the bills seek to disrupt the processes of grooming, indoctrination, radicalization, and recruitment that enable terrorist organizations to sustain their membership and influence.

These measures are particularly relevant to concerns regarding recruitment pathways identified in intelligence and security assessments, including ideological conditioning, immersion activities, online influence operations, and the exploitation of vulnerable sectors by extremist organizations.

For decades, we have seen how organized extremist movements prey on the youth. They take anger and give it ideology. They take pain and turn it into hatred. They take idealism and redirect it toward armed violence. Today, we must also contend with more creative, faster, and more hidden forms of violent influence, especially online.

The lesson of the Tacloban shooting is not that every child with angst or anger is an extremist. This oversimplification is unfair and dangerous. The lesson is that the country can no longer afford to wait until violence erupts before taking prevention seriously.

In this context, the proposed legislations, deserve sober and serious discussion. Prevention is not “fascism” when it is anchored on child protection, due process, human rights, and community support. Schools need stronger guidance systems, functioning child protection committees, mental health referral pathways, trained teachers, and clear early-warning protocols.

Protecting children from terror grooming and radicalization is part of protecting their right to life, safety, education, and a future free from fear. Schools and universities must remain places of learning, formation, friendship, and hope. They must never become places where fear, recruitment, or violence can quietly take root.

We therefore urge our lawmakers to treat the Tacloban school shooting as a painful warning and reminder. The NTF-ELCAC remains ready to work with government agencies, schools, families, communities, and civil society partners in protecting Filipino children from terror grooming, radicalization, and the normalization of senseless violence.

Our children should never become casualties of neglect, manipulation, or violent influence. They deserve a country that notices the warning signs early, acts before tragedy strikes, and chooses prevention before regret.

Usec. Ernesto C. Torres Jr.

Executive Director, NTF‑ELCAC