ISULAN, Sultan Kudarat, Philippines --- What was first perceived as a loud gunshot that reverberated through the campus of the Isulan National High School (INHS) in Sultan Kudarat province, on Wednesday morning, September 30, caused massive panic among students and teachers.
The INHS campus is in the center of Isulan, capital town of Sultan Kudarat province in Region 12.
Sultan Kudarat Gov. Pax Ali Mangudadatu, in a statement posted on Facebook pages, said contrary to what circulated first, there was no shooting incident in the INHS campus.
Mangudadatu said the loud seeming gunshot that was heard by students and teachers could be due to an electrical short circuit.
Local executives in Isulan, personnel of the municipal and provincial engineering offices and officials of the Bureau of Fire Protection in the province are together investigating the cause of what teachers and students in the INHS thought as a loud gunshot, which forced them to hastily leave the classrooms and run away.
“There was no shooting incident whatsoever in the campus,” said Mangudadatu, who, as governor of Sultan Kudarat, is also presiding chairperson of the multi-sector provincial peace and order council.
Officials of the Police Regional Office 12 and the acting commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, Brig. Ricky Bunayog, separately told reporters on Wednesday that residents of Isulan who have children in the INHS also panicked when they learned from social media that there was a shooting incident in its campus, posted without prior verification by netizens.