At least three people, including a former mayor, were killed and another wounded Sunday during a daring attack by a gunman on a university campus in the Philippines capital region, according to reports. The authorities.
The attacker, who was armed with two pistols, was captured after the shooting near the gate of the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City. The institution imposed a lockdown and a graduation ceremony at the law school was cancelled, police said.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, who was supposed to give the speech at the ceremony, was on his way to the university at the time of the attack and was advised not to show up, officials said.
Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte condemned the attack: “These kinds of incidents have no place in our society and should be condemned in the strongest terms,” she said in a statement.
According to the authorities, the people who died in the attack were Rosita Furigay, a former mayor of the town of Lamitan, in Basilan province, her assistant and a university guard.
Furigay’s daughter, who was supposed to attend the graduation ceremony, was injured and taken to a hospital, according to a police report.
Investigators were still trying to determine the motive for the attack.
The shooting occurred despite a heavy police presence and a restriction on firearms imposed by police and other authorities in Quezon City, where newly elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will deliver his first state of the nation address on Monday. before a joint session of Congress in the House of Representatives.