00:01Interior Secretary John Wick Remulia says there is a quote great degree of confidence the Zamboanga
00:07shooter was influenced by Roblox. Cases of sexual assault and acts of lasciviousness are filed
00:13against Marikina Congressman Marcy Teodoro. The Move As One coalition flags the absence of funding
00:18for the EDSA busway in the DOTR's proposed 2027 budget. Meta platforms reject accusations by U.S.
00:25states that it designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children. And the U.S. imposes
00:31sanctions on ICC President Tomoko Akane and senior trial lawyer Abdullah Yese of Senegal.
00:45Secretary John Wick Remulia says the Interior Department will be doing a forensic examination
00:50on the gadgets of the shooter in the Zamboanga City School shooting that happened on Tuesday,
00:54August 18. He says they currently don't know its certainty, but adds,
00:59But it is with great degree of confidence that he was influenced by the game of Roblox again
01:08because of the manner of which we did it.
01:12Remulia says the game itself is not dangerous, but rather its chat group feature. Authorities are
01:17investigating the students' digital activities, although there is currently no established link
01:22between the attack and Roblox. Meantime, Roblox Corporation faces questions over online grooming,
01:28parental involvement, and the effectiveness of its child safety measures, amid ongoing investigations
01:32into youth safety following the two fatal school shootings in the country. This during its first-ever
01:38unboxed Roblox event in Manila with Roblox Corporation's Head of Communications in Asia-Pacific,
01:43Papri Dev. Dev was asked how parents can know whether the platform's safeguards are actually
01:48protecting children from grooming and other digital threats. Dev emphasizes technology alone is not
01:54enough and says,
01:55I think parents need to be involved as a part of, you know, the time that kids are spending on
02:04the
02:04platform.
02:05Roblox says its systems include automated moderation of text chat, age-appropriate access controls,
02:11and teams dedicated to identifying exploitative content. But the effectiveness of those new systems
02:16introduced in April 2026 remains an important question. After a school shooting in Tacloban City
02:21on June 22, a Senate hearing uncovered that groomers in a, quote, nihilistic violent extremism network
02:27are using online gaming platforms to recruit young people, naming Roblox, Minecraft, and Gorebox.
02:33The second school shooting, in Zamwanga City, saw a student kill a grade 10 student before taking his own life.
02:42Department of Justice prosecutors filed cases of sexual assault and acts of lasciviousness against
02:47Marikina City 1st District Representative Marcelino Marcy Teodoro. DOJ spokesperson Rafael Martinez
02:53confirms the filing against Teodoro for four counts of sexual assault and one count of acts of
02:57lasciviousness. This in line with complaints filed by two female police officers who served as the
03:02lawmakers' security personnel. Martinez says the sexual assault charge was filed with the Marikina City
03:08Regional Trial Court, while the acts of lasciviousness case was filed with the Metropolitan Trial Court.
03:13In 2025, one of the police women filed a complaint against the former Marikina mayor for allegedly
03:18committing acts of lasciviousness, claiming the incident happened during the early period of her
03:22assignment. Meanwhile, the second complainant alleged that the lawmaker committed rape by assault
03:27and acts of lasciviousness. The female law enforcer first served as a close-in aide of Teodoro's wife,
03:33Marikina Mayor Maan Teodoro, and was later assigned to the lawmaker.
03:38Transport advocacy group MOVE-AS-1 coalition flags the absence of funding for the EDSA busway,
03:44service contracting program, and fuel subsidies for transport drivers in the DOTR's proposed
03:482027 budget. The EDSA busway, listed as the National Capital Region Busway Project,
03:54received 88.7 million pesos in the 2026 budget. MOVE-AS-1 also questions the lack of funding for
04:01road safety in the DOTR's 2027 budget proposal. The group also notes significant cuts to the public
04:07transportation modernization program. The allocation for the program fell from 2.5 billion
04:12pesos in 2026 to 176.8 million pesos in 2027. Funding for active transportation was also cut
04:19from 105.38 million pesos to 33.8 million pesos in the proposed 2027 budget. MOVE-AS-1 active
04:27transport lead, Abigail Modales, describes the decline in the active transportation budget in
04:31the past few years, not a dip but a collapse. Rappler has reached out to the DOTR for a statement
04:37but has yet to receive a response.
04:41Meta platforms reject accusations by U.S. states that it intentionally designed Facebook and
04:46Instagram to be addictive to children, leading to mental health issues. This comes at the start
04:51of a trial that could reshape some of the most popular apps on the planet. A bipartisan group of 29
04:56U.S.
04:57states, led by California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey, accuse Meta of designing these
05:01platforms to hook young users, fueling anxiety, depression, and even suicide, and misleading
05:06consumers about the platform's safety. All 29 states accuse Meta of violating federal law by
05:12improperly collecting and using children's personal data. Meta and other social media companies
05:17including Snap, TikTok Parent ByteDance, and YouTube Parent Alphabet face thousands of lawsuits over
05:22whether their products harm young users. Meta says penalties could be as high as $1.4 trillion
05:27and defends its practices, claiming no clear link between social media use and negative well-being.
05:35The United States imposes sanctions on the International Criminal Court's President Tomoko Akane,
05:40a Japanese judge, and a senior trial lawyer, Abdullaya Say of Senegal. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says
05:46the sanctions were imposed under a Trump executive order issued last year that allows penalties
05:51against the ICC. The ICC was established in 2002 by the international community to prosecute war
05:56crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. The U.S. is not a member of the court. The ICC
06:02condemns the move, saying the measures undermine the rule of law. The ICC says, quote,
06:07when judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself
06:12that is placed at risk. And that's today's wrap. I'm JC Cotinga. Thank you for watching.
06:19Click the link below for the full story. For more updates, download the Rappler app.
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