Sen. Risa Hontiveros pushed back on Tuesday, June 30, against online posts circulated over the weekend that cast her as the figure pushing to outlaw the video game Gorebox, calling the claim false and stressing that her committee has not even convened on the matter.
“I never recommended, said, or even thought about banning any game including this Gorebox,” she said.
The senator chairs the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, which is scheduled to open its inquiry on Wednesday, July 1, into the June 22 attack at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City. No conclusions can fairly be drawn ahead of that session, she argued. “Wala pang recommendation ni findings na lumalabas sa Senate Committee on Women because we are still to hold the hearing tomorrow,” Hontiveros said. “So wag pangunahan nung mga nag fake news over the weekend. Dun po tayo sa totoo. Ang totoo ay may mga batang napatay, may mga magulang na naulila sa anak, may marami pang bata na sugatan at malalim ang trauma.”
The shooting left three students dead and 20 others wounded, with two suspects aged 14 and 15 now in custody. Police have said one of the minors was a frequent Gorebox player, and one used a 9mm pistol registered to a relative who serves in the police, according to reporting by Philstar.com. A separate plot targeting another Leyte school was later disrupted, with the Department of the Interior and Local Government identifying that suspect as another Gorebox follower, the same outlet reported.
Hontiveros tied the committee’s interest to a warning from the Department of Justice that the case carried signs of possible Nihilistic Violent Extremism. “In such a situation, when the DOJ also said that this case bears the markings of the possible influence of NVE, yung Nihilistic Violent Extremism, of course, our committee would call all the stakeholders involved,” she said.
For the July 1 session, she said the panel cast a wide net, listing those it summoned: “yung mga magulang nung mga napatay, yung tita nung isang shooter na sinasabing PNP personnel at may-ari nung baril na nakuha yung isa sa mga batang bumaril.” Among the agencies and groups invited were the Department of Education, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, telecommunications firms Globe and Smart, the Game Developers Association of the Philippines, and PNP Tacloban. “Kasi malawak itong issue, of course it is about parental control, it is about gun access, maraming factors,” she said.
The hearing proceeds despite one notable absence. Gorebox developer Felix Filip, who is based in Germany and runs F2 Games, declined the committee’s invitation by email, telling the senators the title carries an 18+ classification and is “not intended for, or directed at, minors.” The game had already been temporarily blocked in the country by the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center after authorities linked it to the attack.
Hontiveros said she still wanted his account because of how she believes online radicalization unfolds. “Pero kailangan sanang marinig din yung developer ng Gorebox because it seems, itong NVE or nihilistic violent extremism, ang operation nito there are malign actors who enter into the games,” she said. “They spot and target, sinusubukan nilang kaibiganin yung ilang mga batang naglalaro doon and then apparently they lure them out of the gaming platform and on to other spaces like Messenger as in the case of the Roblox hearing, doon nila ginugroom yung mga bata para sa karahasan.”
Even without Filip’s appearance, she said the committee expects substantive testimony. “So, I would have wanted the Gorebox developer to be there, but if he’s still not going to participate tomorrow, marami po tayong matututunan dun sa ibang mga stakeholders about how to make games and how to make our whole society safer for our children, both online and of course offline, pati sa ating mga eskwelahan.”
