Tragedy struck today when three people were reportedly killed in a school shooting which had taken place at a university in the Philippine capital, Manila in what appears to have been a targeted assassination.
The incident had occurred at Ateneo de Manila University as some of the law students and their families had arrived for a graduation ceremony that was to be attended by the Supreme Court chief justice.
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The alleged gunman has also been detained.
Rose Furigay, a former city mayor in the restive southern province of Basilan and whose daughter was among the graduates, was killed, authorities revealed.
Furigay’s executive assistant and a university security guard were also killed. Her daughter was wounded and is in a “stable condition” in hospital, police said.
“We are quite distraught and bereaved by this occurrence,” Joy Belmonte, the mayor of a local government unit where the shooting happened, told AFP.
School and university shootings are rare in the Philippines despite its lax gun rules. But targeted killings of politicians are fairly common, particularly during elections.
In a similar report, the outgoing President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has hit out at his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for maiming and killing innocent civilians, including children and the elderly, in Ukraine during the ongoing conflicts.
Duterte said Putin should control his soldiers in Ukraine, adding he started the ruckus in Ukraine.
He said this during a public address on Monday night, according to the state-run Philippines News Agency (PNA).
“A lot of people are saying that Putin and I are the same because we kill people,” said Duterte.
“But I kill criminals. I do not kill children and the elderly. What is happening in Russia and America is different from what is happening here.”
