Mindanao After the Gunfire: A South Cotabato Community Confronts a Tragedy It Never Expected

On September 18, 2026, a quiet agrarian town just outside of Koronadal City witnessed one of the most tragic days recorded in the town’s history when a 16-year-old student from Banga National High School in South Cotabato opened fire on his schoolmates, killing three people, including himself, while injuring eight others.

The attack only ended when the shooter turned the gun on himself, ending his life.

Known as the “Corn Capital” of South Cotabato, Banga is not a place where school shootings are part of the landscape. It is a town where homes leave their doors open, where neighbors know one another, where strangers would help you change a flat tire on the road, and where families gather in church on Sundays. Violence of this kind feels almost incongruous with the habitus of the town I've frequently visited as a child. The same town where my aunt taught bible school and attended prayer meetings.

More shockingly, in the aftermath of the school shooting in Banga National High School, just fifteen minutes away from my native hometown of Santo Niño, South Cotabato, a few students went online brandishing their access to guns, pointing at the camera and saying things like “putok ko to sa yo e!” which roughly translates to, “get ready, I’m about to shoot you!” The three boys then cock the gun, pointing it at each other, laughing.

But school shootings are no joke.

Local rescuers responded to reports of gunfire at the campus at approximately 1:30 p.m. Video footage showed sobbing students fleeing as gunshots echoed loudly in the background. A few hours later, I received forwarded videos of raw footage of the suspect lying in a swelling pool of bright red blood, a responder checking his pulse for a sign of life.

People in the background saying things like, “Put a yellow tape, put a yellow tape! Tell people to stay back and get away.”

Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. found the shooting in Banga “very disturbing,” particularly because, in his view, it was unusual for young people to have access to firearms and use them in such a manner, especially since it seems like there weren't any true targets. “The situation is truly unique,” Castro said, relaying the president’s reaction.

The circumstances surrounding how the student obtained the firearm quickly became a central focus of the investigation. The weapon used in the shooting belonged to the teenager’s father, a Department of Education employee who worked in the agency’s risk reduction unit. According to official reports for the mayor’s office, the 16-year-old reportedly broke open a vault where his father kept the firearm and decided to take the gun to school.

If Parkland became a catalyst for a national youth movement called “March of Our Lives” in the United States, could Banga become a similar turning point for students in Mindanao?

The impact has extended beyond the small town of  Banga, home to fewer than 100,000 people. Neighboring municipalities and cities, including Koronadal City, Lake Sebu, Tantangan, Norala, Surallah, Sultan Kudarat, Tacurong, and Sto. Niño, have implemented school closures, with many shifting to asynchronous learning as school administrations across the region assess how to respond to the growing concern over school shootings.

The measures come amid a recent spate of school shootings that has raised new questions about the safety of Philippine schools and the possibility of a phenomenon once considered something more of an American affliction.

According to Banga Mayor Albert Palencia, the 16-year-old had given his friends a warning before the shooting. After lunch, he told them to go home because, he said, “he was going to do something” and that they might get hurt.

His classmates did not take him seriously. They thought he was joking.

The shooter was in Room 17. Fourteen-year-old Bryan Pamonag and his classmates were in Room 13. “He skipped all the other rooms and came straight to our room to start shooting,” the student recalled in an interview reported in Ilonggo by Daily Dose Nicka Pama on Facebook. Sitting with one arm in a sling, Pamonag recounted the moments that have since made him something of a local hero: the instant he realized the gunfire was real, the struggle to keep the shooter from entering his classroom, and the split-second decisions that may have saved the lives of his classmates.

At first, he said, no one understood what was happening.

“We thought it was just a firecracker because it seemed like it came out of nowhere,” he said. “But when we looked outside, we saw him firing a gun, so I told all of my classmates to go inside.”

The students ducked for cover. Then he saw the shooter approaching their classroom door.

As the gunman tried to enter, the student kicked him away and pulled the door shut.

The door could not be locked from inside; it could only be secured from the outside. So he held it closed with his body as the shooter struggled against him.

“It was like we were almost at a tug of war over the door,” he recalled.

When the shooter turned toward the classroom window, Pamonag moved again. He grabbed a chair and positioned it against the window, attempting to block the gunman's view and prevent him from opening it and shooting through it.

But the shooter managed to push his arm through and fire into the classroom.

“He was trying to shoot me in the head,” recalls Pamonag, “but I ducked and used my arms to protect my head,” the student said.

The boy's actions have earned him praise throughout the community, but when asked why he had risked his own life to protect his classmates, his answer was strikingly matter-of-fact.

“Well, if he got into our classroom, he wouldn't just shoot my classmates, right? He'd shoot me too,” he said. “So I didn't want to die, and I took action.”

He said that, in those moments, he did not feel afraid.

“I wasn't scared. I didn't feel nervous,” he said. “I just knew God was there, guiding my actions to do the right thing.”

Banga is a reminder that prevention is not simply about stopping a bullet. Because by the time the first bullet is fired, we have already lost.