Ateneo de Zamboanga official: Shooter used PWD ramp to bypass school security

The student linked to the fatal shooting at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University entered the junior high school building through a ramp normally reserved for persons with disabilities, allowing him to bypass the building’s regular security checkpoints, a school official told a Senate hearing Thursday.

Armee Jay Cresmundo, executive assistant to the university president and legal adviser, said the ramp was typically kept closed and opened only when needed by students with disabilities or those carrying heavy items.

“At that time, the ramp was open because a student will pass through. And unfortunately, ito po 'yung ginawang access point para po makalusot po dun po sa security na meron in the building itself,” Cresmundo said.

(At that time, the ramp was open because a student was going to pass through. Unfortunately, this was used as an access point to get past the security inside the building.)

Cresmundo made the disclosure during a joint Senate committee hearing on the August 18 shooting, which left two students dead, including the alleged shooter, and another student injured.

She said the university compound is gated, with separate vehicle entry and exit gates. Vehicles entering the compound are registered and inspected by security personnel.

The junior high school building, where the shooting occurred, has two regular entry points, with two security guards assigned to each entrance. Students entering through these points are subjected to security checks.

Cresmundo said the alleged shooter and his sister arrived in the same vehicle. The sister went through the regular security checkpoint, while the shooter remained in the vehicle and later proceeded toward the ramp when it was opened.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate committee on women, children, family relations and gender equality, questioned how the student was able to take advantage of the opening.

Cresmundo explained that after getting out of the vehicle, the siblings walked toward the building but took separate paths, with the alleged shooter proceeding toward the ramp.

The disclosure came as Hontiveros warned about the possible influence of nihilistic violent extremism (NVE) on school violence, while stressing that authorities were still investigating whether the Zamboanga shooting was NVE-related.

“Investigations are still ongoing,” Hontiveros said, noting that the shooting was also livestreamed.

She urged authorities and the public to focus on understanding the mechanisms and systemic gaps that may have enabled the violence rather than on the identities of perpetrators or suspects.

Hontiveros also said the Senate would examine proposed measures seeking to expand the coverage of the country’s anti-violence against women and children law to include violence committed in digital spaces.

The hearing comes amid renewed scrutiny of school security following the incidents in Ateneo de Zamboanga University and a school in Tacloban. —AOL, GMA News