Bullying in the Philippines is widespread in schools and over the Internet, with a study that

states that about 50 per cent of Pilipino students are bullied in school. Bullying can easily
affect both the bully and the victim, and that’s why the government in the Philippines is
working hard to crack down on it. The latest measures include the signing the anti -bullying act
of 2013, which criminalizes any act of bullying or cyber bullying that happens in the country.
Read on to learn about bullying in The Philippines.

Cyber bullying in the Philippines

The affordability and availability of personal computing has allowed for an increase in cyber bullying
across the world, and the Philippines is no different. Cyber bullying is the use of digital media to be unkind
to others. This can include sending messages through social media, e-mail or text message, in order to
make the victim feel uncomfortable, powerless or threatened.
Cyber bullying can also include hacking others’ social media accounts in order to steal secrets or assume
their identity for the same purposes. With children and teens more connected than ever to their mobile
devices and computers, this can make them vulnerable to bullying all day – at home, at school and
anywhere else.
Cyber Bullying in The Philippines has become a major issue. The Philippines is considered the 4th country
to search for cyber bullying over the Internet.
As well as specific anti-bullying legislation, The Philippines also have specific laws governing cybercrime.
One piece of legislation that addresses this area is the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. This controls
acts such as:

 Cybersex, or the wilful engagement, maintenance, control, or operation, directly or indirectly, of

any lascivious exhibition of sexual organs or sexual activity, with the aid of a computer system, for favour
or consideration.
 Child pornography, as defined in the Anti-child pornography Act of 2009.
 Illegal access, or access to some part or the whole computer system without having the right to.
 Identity theft.
 Password theft.
 Computer-related forgery
 Cybersquatting, or the acquisition of the domain name over the internet, in bad faith, to profit,
mislead, destroy a reputation, and depriving others of registering the same subject to certain subjects.
This controversial piece of legislation was not welcomed by everyone. According to some journalists,
lawyers, bloggers and politicians, the law gives too much room for interpretation which gives the
government great control over the life on the internet and social media. Furthermore, the law does not
only punish the person who was responsible for the act, but also will affect the people who accepted and
agreed on it like sharing the content by tweeting, sharing updates, videos, and photos. The penalty can go
up to 12 years in prison and the maximum fine of one million Philippine pesos ($20898) for each incident.

School bullying in the Philippines

A survey that was recently conducted showed that one in two Filipino children have witnessed violence or
abuse in their schools. It was also showed that students in the schools of Philippine witness the different
types of bullying including name calling, teasing, exclusion, or forcing the victim to do things.
The Department of Education in the Philippines reported more than 1,700 cases of child abuse or bullying
in schools for the years of 2013 and 2014. However this number is decreasing. The decrease may be due to
an order in 2012 known as DepEd Child Protection Policy. This states the polic y and guidelines for the
child protection in schools against abuse, exploitation, violence, discrimination, and bullying.
The 2012 DepEd Child Protection Policy not only takes care of the violence targeted towards the children
but it also looks at the family. Information is then referred to school administrators and teachers.
The House of Representatives in Philippine has approved a bill that requires all elementary and the
secondary schools to adopt policies that prevent bullying or any other kind of viole nce in the schools. This
bill requires the schools to include the anti-bullying policies. The schools then submit to the Department of
Education after six months upon the effect of the law, and any incidents should be reported immediately,
and in case of absence of the policies in any school, there is a sanction that falls on the school’s
administrators.

Bullying stories in the Philippines

– A 5-year-old girl, a student at Fisher Valley College in Taguig, was the victim of physical bullying.
Children in her class would pull her chair away when she tried to sit down, causing her to fall. When her
parents knew of the incident they talked to the school about it and the school promised that an actio n would
be taken. However, nothing happened. Due to this, the situation escalated and she got stabbed in the arm
with a pencil. Ultimately the girl had to visit a psychologist to deal with the anxiety that these incidents
caused.
– Another incident involved a 9-year-old boy from Tanong elementary school in Malabon, who was also
subjected to a physical kind of bullying. The 4 th grade school boy was in a critical condition after his
classmates allegedly bullied him. The incident started when the mother found her son back from school
with some bruises but she didn’t know what happened exactly, and when he suffered a fever at night she
took him to the hospital and found out that he suffered an internal bleeding in his liver.
– Another cyber bullying incident in the Philippines was about the 27-year-old Raymond Malinay who was
a Facebook fanatic. One day he found that he was hacked and his picture was being well edited and
published as if it was stated from the AIDS society of Philippines saying that he has HIV, and he was
wanted for spreading the deadly disease.

If you have any information or experience of bullying problems in the Philippines we want to hear
from you. Please join the conversation below.

What Is Bullying

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that

involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has
the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully
others may have serious, lasting problems.

In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:

 An Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their power—such as

physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to
control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in
different situations, even if they involve the same people.
 Repetition: Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the
potential to happen more than once.

Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking

someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on
purpose.

 Types of Bullying
 Where and When Bullying Happens
 Frequency of Bullying
Types of Bullying
There are three types of bullying:

 Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying includes:

o Teasing
o Name-calling
o Inappropriate sexual comments
o Taunting
o Threatening to cause harm
 Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves
hurting someone’s reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes:
o Leaving someone out on purpose
o Telling other children not to be friends with someone
o Spreading rumors about someone
o Embarrassing someone in public
 Physical bullying involves hurting a person’s body or possessions.
Physical bullying includes:
o Hitting/kicking/pinching
 o Spitting
o Tripping/pushing
o Taking or breaking someone’s things
o Making mean or rude hand gestures
Where and When Bullying Happens
Bullying can occur during or after school hours. While most reported bullying
happens in the school building, a significant percentage also happens in places
like on the playground or the bus. It can also happen travelling to or from school,
in the youth’s neighborhood, or on the Internet.

Frequency of Bullying
There are two sources of federally collected data on youth bullying:

 The 2014–2015 School Crime Supplement - PDF (National Center for

Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice Statistics) indicates that,
nationwide, about 21% of students ages 12-18 experienced bullying.
 The 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention) indicates that, nationwide, 20% of students in
grades 9–12 report being bullied on school property in the 12 months
preceding the survey.
Effects of Bullying

Bullying can affect everyone—those who are bullied, those who bully, and those
who witness bullying. Bullying is linked to many negative outcomes including
impacts on mental health, substance use, and suicide. It is important to talk to
kids to determine whether bullying—or something else—is a concern.

Kids Who are Bullied

Kids who are bullied can experience negative physical, school, and mental health
issues. Kids who are bullied are more likely to experience:

 Depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness,

changes in sleep and eating patterns, and loss of interest in activities they
used to enjoy. These issues may persist into adulthood.
 Health complaints
  Decreased academic achievement—GPA and standardized test scores—
and school participation. They are more likely to miss, skip, or drop out of
school.

A very small number of bullied children might retaliate through extremely violent
measures. In 12 of 15 school shooting cases in the 1990s, the shooters had a
history of being bullied.

Kids Who Bully Others

Kids who bully others can also engage in violent and other risky behaviors into
adulthood. Kids who bully are more likely to:

 Abuse alcohol and other drugs in adolescence and as adults

 Get into fights, vandalize property, and drop out of school
 Engage in early sexual activity
 Have criminal convictions and traffic citations as adults
 Be abusive toward their romantic partners, spouses, or children as adults
Bystanders
Kids who witness bullying are more likely to:

 Have increased use of tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs

 Have increased mental health problems, including depression and anxiety
 Miss or skip school
The Relationship between Bullying and Suicide
Media reports often link bullying with suicide. However, most youth who are
bullied do not have thoughts of suicide or engage in suicidal behaviors.

Although kids who are bullied are at risk of suicide, bullying alone is not the
cause. Many issues contribute to suicide risk, including depression, problems at
home, and trauma history. Additionally, specific groups have an increased risk of
suicide, including American Indian and Alaskan Native, Asian American, lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. This risk can be increased further when
these kids are not supported by parents, peers, and schools. Bullying can make
an unsupportive situation worse.