The impunity of adults in committing crimes against children

By Fr. Shay Cullen

There has been widespread debate and publicity in the wake of the shocking shooting at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City on June 22, 2026, that left three students dead and 20 others injured. We extend our prayers and condolences to their families and stand in solidarity with the victims. There can be no excuse for such violence, and we must analyze the circumstances that led the perpetrators, aged 14 and 15, to commit that heinous crime and prevent it from being repeated.

The two teenagers used weapons made available by careless and uncaring adults. The 14-year-old used a Glock 9mm pistol belonging to his aunt, an active-duty policewoman who had previously taught him how to shoot. The 15-year-old, meanwhile, carried a.38-caliber revolver registered to a security agency in Cebu City. That they got hold of them at all showed how easily available such weapons are.

This “random” shooting by minors is extremely rare in the Philippines. It is adults who enable young people to shoot. These adults have created a culture of violence that results in regular and frequently deadly shootings, especially in the provinces that affect children. And there is no public “outcry” over the more than 4,000 murders committed by adults every year.

It is the physical, verbal, psychological and sexual violence committed by adults against children that has damaged the youth. There is no outcry or massive protest against this, either. Adults have created a culture of violence and murder through their bad example, and the public has been mostly apathetic about it. We have yet to hear a media outlet, police officer or senator loudly protesting the widespread sexual abuse and human trafficking of minors by adults. Approximately 2 million Filipino children are subjected to online sexual abuse, violence and exploitation annually, and nearly one in five children ages 13 to 17 have experienced child sexual abuse in their home or community in a year, according to United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) research.

The two teenage shooters were likely influenced by the gun violence promoted by former president Rodrigo Duterte, whom some online posts say they admired. During his term, the police were responsible for the brutal shooting of 6,252 civilians, and they were granted immunity. Research by major international human rights organizations claims that the total number of those killed by the Duterte administration’s war on drugs is estimated to be over 30,000. There was no widespread public outrage as the dead bodies piled up. Now, Duterte is set to be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. He allegedly ordered, even on live television, the killing of anyone suspected of wrongdoing.

It is amazing that out of a teenage population of 4.7 million, only two committed horrific crimes influenced by adults’ bad example. Yet some lawmakers want to brand all children as potential criminals by lowering the minimum age of criminal liability to 10 years old. The real criminals are the adults in positions of influence who can kill with impunity in a society conditioned to accept in silence the corruption and violence perpetrated by those adults armed with guns and power.

Death squads

What should shock the nation more is what is unfolding in the ICC, as evidence of the horrific killings of thousands of innocent Filipino civilians allegedly by Duterte’s “death squads” is being presented to a panel of international judges. Even more shocking is that it was allowed to happen and cheered by thousands of Duterte supporters, and so few Filipinos spoke out against the killings.

Perhaps, the uncontrolled internet access that enables the sexual abuse of 2 million Filipino children in a year and continues to promote the online “Killing Games” is the “influencer” that has created this “culture of acceptability” in the population that allows and even ignores the violent crimes by adults. The police in Tacloban linked the 14-year-old suspect to an obsession with an internet-based, highly violent mobile game called GoreBox. This features graphic gun violence, where players kill people with impunity.

There are tens of thousands of Filipinos who play the highly popular “Call of Duty” and others like “League of Legends,” “Counter-Strike,” and “Apex Legends.” The duty they are called to do in these horrible games is to kill people. Are these games creating the culture of acceptability of deaths by shooting in the Philippines? The lethal weapon is a virtual, high-powered gun that moves on the screen and targets opponents who are being hunted. Then they fire and kill their “enemies” to earn “kill scores.”

Players — adults and teenagers alike — apparently enjoy the virtual “killing,” and see or feel nothing wrong or immoral with feeling pleasure over committing what is a criminal, albeit virtual, act. Is this what motivated the two teenagers in Tacloban? Playing this killing game is a massive cultural phenomenon on smartphones in the Philippines. Many thousands of people play those games day and night. It may be immoral, but it is legal. There are “Call to Duty” killing tournaments, and similar games of gun violence are equally popular, where winners get monetary prizes. Has this phenomenon of killer games created a population conditioned to accept and cheer on the killing spree of the “death squads” and teach our children that it is OK to “kill” people virtually? This lowers the value of human life and conditions the children to accept gun violence as a normal part of daily life.

The school shooters have told investigators that they were victims of bullying. Unicef reported that one in three children reported experiencing psychological or verbal violence and bullying inside their school. Roughly two in five children — at least 33 percent — reported being victims of online bullying and subjected to cyberviolence, which includes digital verbal abuse and unsolicited sexual messaging by adults and peers.

If this culture of violence continues and becomes more socially acceptable, Filipino children face a bleak future, and more street and school gun violence will erupt, as it has been in the United States, where there were 1,455 gun-related incidents in school, leaving over 350 teachers and students dead and more than 800 others injured between 2021 and 2025.

What needs to be done is to strongly promote the value of life and provide alternatives, and advocate values and educational-based games for the youth with tournaments and big prizes as incentives.

We can change our community for the better by opposing evil and doing good.