3 people died in a shooting at a higher education institution in the Philippines

MANILA, July 24 (Reuters) – Three people, including a former mayor of the country’s volatile south, were killed in a shooting at a university graduation ceremony in the Philippines’ capital region on Sunday.

Quezon City local police chief Remus Medina said the shooting was a plot against Rose Furiga, the former mayor of the southern town of Lamitan.

Medina told reporters that the suspect, who was injured in a shootout with a campus security officer and arrested after a car chase, is currently in custody and being questioned.

“He was a determined assassin,” he said, adding that he was found with two handguns.

Quezon is part of the metropolitan area of ​​Manila, which consists of 16 cities with a population of over 13 million people.

Medina said Furigay was shot as he prepared to leave for his daughter’s graduation from the law school of Ateneo de Manila University, one of the country’s most prestigious universities.

The suspect, who had no relatives at the graduation ceremony, was also a native of Lamitan, Basilan province, a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf, a pro-Islamic State extremist group known for robberies and kidnappings.

The other two people killed were a campus security officer and an unidentified man, police said.

Ateneo canceled its graduation ceremony after the shooting.

In the Southeast Asian country, where shootings occur sporadically, owners are required to have a permit to carry guns in public. Private security guards in the Philippines carry either pistols or shotguns, and firearms are a common sight in shopping malls, offices, banks, restaurants and even schools.

“We owe it to our law enforcement agencies to thoroughly and swiftly investigate these killings and bring to justice all those involved,” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said.

Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Edited by Christopher Cushing, Alexandra Hudson

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