VP Sara visits wake of Tacloban school shooting victim
VP Sara Duterte visiting the wake of a Tacloban City shooting victim. (Joan Galang)
TACLOBAN CITY - Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday visited the wake of one of the students killed during the shooting at San Jose National High School here Monday.
His family reportedly requested to speak with the Vice President over the phone. They were surprised when she personally visited them.
He is one of three students killed during the shooting carried out by a 15-year-old and 14-year-old Grade 9 students.
At least 20 others were injured during the incident.
DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian also visited the victims to offer financial and burial assistance.
The official assured the families that children in conflict with the law are now under DSWD custody in one of their facilities.
“At least they will have peace of mind. It’s not like nothing happened.”
He explained to the families that there will still be liability for the CICL.
“After being confined in a DSWD facility and with social workers and child psychologists involved, if there is no remorse and restorative justice does not happen, we will turn them over to regular penal facilities,” he emphasized.
Gatchalian noted negligence on the part of parents who stored guns in their homes, which may have given children access.
The DSWD Secretary shared that they have deployed social workers to hospitals and families of the slain victims.
“This type of grief will take time. The lack of money is not the problem but how to cope with the death, so our social workers are equipped to provide grief and trauma counseling or what we call psychosocial intervention,” he said.
He added that they are coordinating with Department of Education Secretary Sonny Angara and the city government of Tacloban on ways to help the community heal.
Gatchalian appealed to the public to act responsibly when posting on social media to help prevent re-traumatizing the victims and aid their healing.