Posts falsely claim Philippine senator pushed for online game ban after deadly school shooting

Published on July 3, 2026 at 08:26
Updated on July 3, 2026 at 08:31
2 min read
By Tatiana MALIGRO, AFP Philippines

Philippine Senator Risa Hontiveros resumed a legislative probe into the safety of online games following a rare school shooting that killed three people in June 2026, but she did not call for games containing violent material to be banned in the country, contrary to a false claim spreading on social media. The ban was proposed by another government official, Interior Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla, and there are no official reports that Hontiveros had recommended a blanket ban on online games.

"This is Risa Hontiveros's online gaming ban," former congressman Kiko Barzaga said in a video shared to his Facebook page on June 28, where he has over 1.9 million followers.

The clip shows a whiteboard containing names of several video games, which he said could be removed from local online stores under Hontiveros' purported proposed ban.

The post emerged after the Senate Committee on Women and Children -- which Hontiveros chairs -- reopened a probe into online games after a rare school shooting in Tacloban in the central Philippines killed three students on June 22 (archived here and here).

The committee's investigation is a continuation of an earlier inquiry in April into the role of online gaming platforms in the radicalisation of children (archived link).

Screenshot of the false post taken on July 1, 2026 with a red X added by AFP

Local authorities removed the first-person shooting game GoreBox from online stores after they discovered that one of the teenage suspects is an avid player of the game (archived link).

GoreBox's Google Play Store page lists the game as restricted to those over 18 years old due to its extremely violent gameplay (archived link).

Hontiveros says she has invited GoreBox's developer Felix Filip to the hearing to ask him about the game's age restrictions and content moderation practices, but he declined to attend the hearing (archived link).

Similar claims have spread elsewhere on Facebook. While Hontiveros voiced her disappointment in Filip's decision, there are no official reports that she has proposed a ban on online games.

A keyword search found that it was Interior Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla who called for the ban, not Hontiveros.

"Games espousing violence such as GoreBox should be permanently banned from the Philippines. I believe that it desensitises young people into the elements of death, the elements of violence and the elements of murder," he said at a press conference on June 25 (archived link).

Hontiveros also denied the claims in a post on her official Facebook page on June 30 (archived link).

"I never recommended, said, or even thought about banning any game including this GoreBox," she wrote.

The legislator said in an interview with local news programme ANC that the Senate Committee on Women and Children had not issued any recommendations or findings since the inquiry is still ongoing (archived link).

However, she said a video game ban could be part of a "menu" of recommended reforms.

AFP reached out to Barzaga for comment on his claim, but a reply was not forthcoming.

An earlier proposed senate resolution said the probe, which started months before the shooting, initially aims to suggest age verification protocols and child safety standards that could prevent the violent radicalisation of children (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked other claims linked to the Tacloban school shooting.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail