MANILA – Senator Risa Hontiveros has dismissed as “fake news” social media posts claiming she was leading calls to ban the video game Gorebox, saying her committee has yet to conduct its hearing on the fatal school shooting in Tacloban City and has not made any findings or recommendations.

In a report, it said that Hontiveros, who chairs the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, said the panel will begin its inquiry on Wednesday into the June 22 shooting at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City, where two students aged 14 and 15 allegedly shot and killed three classmates.

Authorities said one of the suspects, a 14-year-old student, used a 9mm Glock pistol owned by his aunt, a police officer who is now under restrictive custody.

According to Hontiveros, the Senate inquiry will examine issues involving access to firearms, parental supervision and the online grooming of children.

Invited to the hearing are the victims’ parents, the suspect’s aunt, representatives from the Department of Education, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Globe, Smart, the Game Developers Association of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police in Tacloban.

“There is no recommendation or findings coming out of the Senate Committee on Women because we are still to hold the hearing tomorrow,” Hontiveros said in a statement posted on social media on Tuesday.

“So don’t get ahead of yourselves, you who spread fake news over the weekend. Let’s stick to the truth. The truth is that there are children who were killed, parents left without their children, and many more children wounded and deeply traumatized,” she added.

The senator also reiterated a clarification she issued on June 26.

“We are not saying that this tragedy was caused by a single game. But if there is an online environment that may have been part of the children’s exposure to violence, it is our duty to investigate that.”

Police said one of the suspects in the Tacloban shooting was an avid player of Gorebox.

Hontiveros said the committee also invited the game’s developer, Felix Filip, who declined to attend, saying by email that Gorebox is rated for adults and “not intended for, or directed at, minors.”

“But the developer of Gorebox needs to be heard because it seems this NVE, or nihilistic violent extremism, operates this way: there are malign actors who enter the games,” Hontiveros said.

“They spot and target, they try to befriend the children playing there and then apparently lure them out of the gaming platform and on to other spaces like Messenger, as in the case of the Roblox hearing, where they groom the children for violence.”

The Department of Justice earlier identified nihilistic violent extremism as a possible motive behind the Tacloban attack.

Meanwhile, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center ordered the temporary blocking of Gorebox on June 23 while authorities investigate the game.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has also said he is open to legislation regulating violent video games.