Implement stricter security measures, mall owners told

Malacañang on Wednesday asked mall owners and management to be stricter with the enforcement of security measures to protect the public and their patrons amid two shooting incidents inside mall premises for the past two weeks. "It’s a concern for the public that we see security agencies, security personnel frisking us and it turns out guns are still able to enter the mall premises," presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda at a press briefing. "So we would like to ask the mall management to be more firm in enforcing security within their premises. We hope that your security agencies will be more strict in frisking the bags and frisking the persons’ belongings," he added. He said malls are quasi-public places. "It’s privately-owned but the public is always there so we hope that they will be aware of the safety of the public patronizing their malls." Lacierda said the public expect a high security level in malls because the mall-goers allow themselves to be frisked. "Sa ibang country po you’re not allowed to be frisked eh—bags lang po ang tinitingnan eh. But we allow ourselves to be frisked so there’s a certain expectation that your security level is high [but] it turns out it’s not," he said. Teen lovers On Tuesday, a 13-year-old boy shot himself shortly after shooting his alleged male teenage lover inside the SM shopping mall in Mexico, Pampanga. On Wednesday afternoon, the 13-year-old boy died. The other victim remains in critical condition. An initial police investigation showed the shooting happened at about 11:45 a.m. near one of the restaurants inside the mall. The 13-year old boy, armed with a calibre-22 handgun, reportedly shot the other boy in the head before turning the gun on himself. In a statement read on GMA News TV Live that same day, vice president for marketing of the SM Supermalls Millie Dizon said the company is conducting its own investigation on the incident. Dizon admitted that the mall's security had failed to detect the firearm from the shooter because it was too small. The gun was "smaller than the size of a palm" and could not be detected by their metal detectors, she said. "Security has been heightened. We are very vigilant when it comes to security," the statement said. SM North EDSA The incident happened on the heels of a similar shooting that killed two people at another SM shopping mall in Quezon City. In the earlier incident, a woman identified as Sheila Macapugay, shot her husband before attempting to shoot herself last Sept. 15. A mall security guard, who tried to stop the woman from shooting herself, ended up getting shot instead. Both the woman's husband and security guard Ricardo Inamac II died in the hospital. — RSJ, GMA News