Public safety
Banga National High School Shooting Leaves Three Dead in South Cotabato
September 24, 2026 · Joshua S Bariñan
A Grade 9 student opened fire inside a classroom at Banga National High School in South Cotabato on September 18, killing two schoolmates before taking his own life. Six others were hurt. The pistol belonged to his father, an employee of the education department in the region. Classes across the town were suspended, counseling teams were sent in, and the national government ordered a review of school security.
The shooting happened at about 1:15 in the afternoon of September 18 in a Grade 9 classroom at Banga National High School. Three people died, including the student who fired, and six others were taken to hospital.
What happened at Banga National High School
The shooting began at about 1:15 in the afternoon of Friday, September 18, inside a Grade 9 classroom at Banga National High School in Barangay Benitez, Banga, South Cotabato. Police said the student fired at classmates and then shot himself. He died at the scene.
Two schoolmates were killed. Six more were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds, some of them in serious condition. Early figures given out on the day varied, and the social welfare department corrected an initial report of six deaths to three.
The municipal disaster office suspended classes at every level across Banga immediately after the shooting. The suspension held through the weekend and into Monday, and the neighboring town of Surallah also called off classes.
Banga is an inland farming town of about 80,000 people between Koronadal and Surallah, and the high school is one of its largest public campuses.
How the gun reached the campus
The weapon was a 9mm pistol registered to the student's father, an employee of the education department's regional office in Soccsksargen. Mayor Albert Palencia said the mother told him her son had broken open the vault where the gun was kept.
The education department confirmed that the father is a regional office employee and the registered owner of the firearm. It said he remains in active service, is not part of the school investigation, and that any case against him would follow from the police findings rather than precede them.
The mayor said the student had warned two friends to go home before lunch that day, telling them he would do something afterward. Because he had a reputation as a joker, they laughed it off and stayed.
What investigators have found
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said the student left written notes describing his depression and setting out a plan for the attack, and that investigators recovered them along with his phone and other devices.
Remulla said the police report showed heavy use of online material involving violence and that the victims appear not to have been chosen. In his account of the initial findings, the shooting was random rather than aimed at particular classmates.
Governor Reynaldo Tamayo, relaying what one of the student's friends told investigators, said he belonged to an online group that called itself the True Crime Community. Police are examining that claim and the sites reached from his devices.
Accounts of the student's age differed in the first days, with the interior department citing 16 and the mayor relaying 14 from the family. The police investigation has not been completed, and authorities withheld the names of the student and the victims.
Counseling and the return to class
The education department sent psychological first aid teams to the school to work with students, teachers and staff, and its offices in South Cotabato coordinated with the schools division office, the regional office, the town government and the police.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara went to Banga on Saturday and said the department's first concern was the safety of the children, their return to school and the timing of that return. He said hiring of school counselor associates would be sped up to strengthen mental health support on campuses.
Parents were told to expect a phased return rather than an immediate one, with counseling offered before regular lessons resume in the affected year level.
The national safety review that followed
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered an investigation into the shooting and directed the education, interior and police agencies to report on the safety measures already in place, identify the gaps and recommend policy changes.
Angara proposed a joint school safety task force with the interior department and the national police. The police said on Sunday that they support it, and that the body would audit security at public schools.
The education department said it will run security assessments of each school covering access control, threat reporting, emergency response and coordination with law enforcement, and will review the measures adopted after earlier incidents.
This was the third school shooting in the country in 2026. Three people were killed in Tacloban in June and two in Zamboanga in August, and nationwide drills for active shooter situations were held in schools earlier in September.