MANILA Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso has signed an executive order establishing the Manila School and Community Safety Task Force, a citywide multi-agency body to prevent armed violence in schools and public areas.
Executive Order No. 29 of 2026 was signed following the school shooting incident at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City, which left three students dead and several others injured.
“I, as mayor of Manila, taos-puso po akong nakikiramay sa mga pamilya ng biktima sa mass shooting sa Tacloban,” Domagoso said in his “State of the City Address” on June 24.
The order, which took effect on June 24, is anchored on three principles: eliminating illegal firearms and armed threats, acting on every credible warning sign of violence, and preparing for emergency response in every school and community.
In an interview with the Varsitarian, Domagoso clarified that the order was meant for public schools, but encouraged private institutions to adopt similar measures.
“Of course, we encourage them to do the same. But this has something to do with our primary, secondary, and tertiary schools owned and run by the city government,” he said.
The task force will serve as the city’s coordinating body against violence by monitoring emerging threats to schools, public gatherings, and critical facilities, and submitting quarterly reports to the Office of the Mayor.
Under the executive order, the task force will be chaired by the mayor or the city administrator and composed of representatives from the Manila Police District (MPD), the Schools Division Office of Manila (SDO Manila), the city’s health, social welfare, and disaster risk reduction and management departments, and the Liga ng mga Barangay.
The MPD will intensify operations against loose firearms, gun-for-hire groups, illegal gun trafficking, and armed criminal networks.
The police force is tasked with maintaining direct communication channels with public school clusters and barangays, launching a threat monitoring and assessment desk to evaluate reports of potential violence, designating a school and youth safety coordinator, and submitting monthly reports on illegal firearm operations.
The SDO Manila is directed to establish School Safety and Threat Assessment Teams in every school district, launch standardized procedures for reporting threats and firearm possession, strengthen counseling programs, and conduct at least two emergency preparedness exercises and one lockdown drill per academic year.
The SDO Manila and the MPD are also tasked with conducting a School Safety Audit of all public schools covering physical security, access control, evacuation routes, communications capability, and existing emergency response plans within 90 days of the order’s effectivity.
Barangays are directed to support violence prevention initiatives and encourage the reporting of threats and illegal firearm possession.
The order sets a 180-day timeline for all public schools to update their emergency response plans, for school districts to establish functioning threat assessment teams, for barangays to designate school safety coordinators, and for the MPD to establish an operational threat monitoring and assessment desk.
Domagoso announced the signing of the executive order on June 24 during his yearly speech at the Quirino Grandstand, which coincided with the 455th Manila founding anniversary.
