15-year-old Tacloban shooter faces 10 additional murder-related raps
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice (DOJ) Tacloban City prosecutors are set to file four counts of frustrated murder and six counts of attempted murder charges against the 15-year-old student behind the Tacloban school shooting incident in June.
DOJ Undersecretary Ian Norman Dato said in a press briefing on Thursday, September 3, that their prosecutors found that the minor shooter acted with discernment and in conspiracy with the 14-year-old second suspect.
“The prosecutors have looked into the entirety of the documentary evidence. I believe some psychological reports have been looked into,” Dato said.
The charges were directed to be filed before the Regional Trial Court in Tacloban City.
A P72,000 bail for each count of frustrated murder and P36,000 for each count of attempted murder were recommended by the DOJ. The total recommended bail amounts to P504,000.
In June, the Police Regional Office in Eastern Visayas had already filed three counts of murder, three counts of frustrated murder and multiple counts of physical injury against the 15-year-old shooter.
Meanwhile, the 14-year-old shooter, according to Dato, is exempt from criminal liability but will undergo intervention mechanisms under the restorative justice mandate of the country’s juvenile justice system.
“The 14-year-old is a minor…so the criminal causes will not apply to him. But the intervention or the jurisdiction over him is now under the local social welfare and development office because a 14-year-old is exempt from criminal liability,” Dato explained.
Last week, Tacloban City prosecutors recommended the filing of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and physical injuries against the policewoman aunt of the younger suspect.
The aunt, who was a police staff sergeant before the incident, owned the government-issued 9mm firearm used by her nephew to open fire at San Jose National High School, killing three students.
The 15-year-old suspect, meanwhile, used a .38-caliber revolver registered to a Cebu security agency.
Both minor shooters are currently under the custody of a rehabilitation facility under the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
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