Systemic Failures Behind the Tacloban Tragedy
The recent school shooting in Tacloban, Leyte, is a tragedy that demands accountability from the government, not from children, according to the Center for Women’s Resources Advocacy Desk. The incident exposes deep systemic failures that continue to place young people at risk, rather than being an isolated event.
Millions of Filipinos lack access to quality education, while schools suffer from chronic shortages of classrooms, facilities, guidance counselors, and mental health services. Nearly five million youth are out of school, and more than 24 million Filipinos are not functionally literate. Despite these long-standing problems, the government’s response remains one of neglect, underfunding, and punitive policies.
Rejecting Punitive Responses
The advocacy desk rejects any attempt to exploit the tragedy to justify harsher punishments against children. The real crisis is not a lack of criminalization, but the state’s failure to fulfill its responsibility to provide quality education, accessible mental health care, social protection, and meaningful opportunities for young people.
Proposals to lower the age of criminal responsibility will neither address the root causes of violence nor prevent similar tragedies. Deploying more police in schools will not make students safer. Schools should be spaces of learning, growth, critical thinking, and care — not environments defined by surveillance, fear, and militarization.
Accountability for Adult Gun Owners
Accountability must also be demanded from adults entrusted with firearms. The weapons used in the incident belonged to adult gun owners, and responsibility cannot be shifted solely onto minors. Without addressing poverty, inadequate access to mental health services, and social exclusion, punitive measures and increased militarization will only exacerbate feelings of alienation and despair.
Focusing on criminalizing children diverts attention from those who bear greater responsibility: governments, communities, and adults entrusted with the welfare of children. True prevention requires a holistic approach centered on social justice, equity, and youth empowerment.
What Students Truly Need
Students need guidance counselors, mental health professionals, social workers, effective child protection mechanisms, libraries, and adequate school facilities that nurture their well-being and development. Children need guidance, care, and opportunities — not fear and punishment. Schools need adequate funding, qualified counselors, libraries, and safe learning environments. Communities need decent jobs, accessible social services, and hope for the future.
Safe schools are built through education, care, and social justice — not through fear, militarization, and criminalization. The fight for safe schools is inseparable from the fight for a genuinely accessible, inclusive, and people-oriented education system.
