Education chief signs implementing rules on school bullying

Education Secretary Armin Luistro. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Punishing school bullies should be the last resort for school officials, who should first try “interventions” to help not only the victims but the bully as well, Education Secretary Armin Luistro said Friday.

“What we want to protect are the children. This is not a law about filing charges here and there, but how to address [bullying] because we believe no child is inherently bad,” Luistro said after signing the implementing rules for the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013 (Republic Act 10627).

Luistro said the Philippines is among the first in the world to have a law against bullying, including “cyber bullying, social bullying and gender-based bullying.”

Aside from disciplinary measures to address bullying, the rules also spell out “intervention programs” meant to address “the issues that influence a student to commit bullying, factors that make a student a target of bullying, and the effects of bullying.”

Interventions include counseling, life skills training, education “and other activities that will enhance the psychological, emotional and psycho-social well-being of both the victim and the bully.”

“Punishment is not the first resort. We determine the acts and if there is a need for disciplinary action, there should be due notice and hearing,” Education Undersecretary for legal affairs Alberto Muyot said.

He admitted many cases of bullying remain unreported even after DepEd came out with a child protection policy in June 2012.

With the law, all public and private kindergarten, elementary and secondary schools are required to have their mechanisms to address bullying.

The school has the primary jurisdiction over students and personnel involved in cases of bullying, including cases that occur around the school grounds, in off-campus school activities, at school bus stops and on accredited school buses.