Arya News - Justice Undersecretary Ian Norman Dato on Thursday said Tacloban City prosecutors had ordered the filing of frustrated murder and attempted murder charges against the 15-year-old boy who was determined to have “acted with discernment” when he brought a gun to the school and opened fire.
MANILA – The older one of the two teenage suspects in the recent deadly school shooting incident in Tacloban City is facing additional criminal charges despite his young age, according to an official of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Justice Undersecretary Ian Norman Dato on Thursday said Tacloban City prosecutors had ordered the filing of frustrated murder and attempted murder charges against the 15-year-old boy who was determined to have “acted with discernment” when he brought a gun to the school and opened fire.
The boy is one of the two Grade 9 students tagged as the shooters in the attack that killed three fellow students and wounded 20 others at San Jose National High School on June 22.
Murder raps
The upcoming filings against the 15-year-old are on top of the five cases—for three counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder—earlier filed against him on July 13 at the family court of the Tacloban Regional Trial Court.
“Our prosecutors found that he acted with discernment and in conspiracy with a second minor,” Dato said in a press briefing.
Under the amended Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act, a child between 15 and 18 years of age shall be exempted from criminal liability unless he or she acted with discernment based on the findings of the prosecutors during preliminary investigation.
The other minor is aged 14 and considered exempt from criminal liability under the law.
Both minors, classified in legal parlance as children in conflict with the law, have since been placed in a rehabilitation center of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Bail recommended
As to the new charges against the 15-year-old, the prosecutors recommended bail at P72,000 each for four counts of frustrated murder and P36,000 each for three counts of attempted murder, Dato said.
Meanwhile, the aunt of the 14-year-old student, Police Staff Sergeant Arla Ray Paciencia, is facing charges for reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and physical injuries, for allowing her government-issued 9mm Glock 17 pistol to be accessed by her nephew and used in the campus schooting.
Paciencia, who has since been relieved of police duty, earlier told a Senate inquiry in July that her nephew broke into her house and stole her gun, which she said was kept in a “plastic locker.”