Senator: Philippine tops 70 countries in youth bullying

MANILA, Philippines — At least seven out of 10 students in Philippine public schools have suffered bullying, ranking the country first among 70 with the problem, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said during the Senate’s hearing on the implementation of the anti-bullying law.

Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate committee on basic education, described as worrisome the prevalence of bullying, as it was supposed to have been addressed by Republic Act 10627 or the
 Anti-Bullying Act of 2013.

The senator lamented that the Philippines’ ranking in terms of bullying was in direct contrast to its second-to-last ranking in terms of reading, mathematics and science.

“This is worrisome for those who experience some form of bullying. We got to that (2018) report of the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment): in the case of reading, math and science, we are second to the last... but in bullying, we are number one across 70-plus countries,” he said.

“It is worrisome that among many countries, some countries are also developing nations, but we rank the highest in terms of bullying,” he added.

Gatchalian noted that the World Health Organization (WHO) found that 40 percent or four out of 10 children aged 13 to 17 years old have suffered bullying, while the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) gathered that 63 percent of Grade 5 students or 10-year-old learners experienced bullying.

PISA’s records showed that 40 percent to 60 percent of 13- to 17-year-old children experienced bullying.

Bernadette Madrid of the Child Protection Network Foundation said results of the National Baseline Survey on Violence Against Children conducted by the Council for the Welfare of Children in 2016 indicated that physical violence was at 66 percent, emotional violence at 58 percent, sexual violence at 20 percent and bullying was at 65 percent.

“And this is across all levels?” Gatchalian asked Madrid.

“Yes. The survey was done on those aged 13 to 17 years... So not only when they were 13 or 17, but even when they were younger. That was included in the question. So it’s not limited to one grade level. As we know, middle school is really the peak time for bullying,” Madrid responded.

“If you do the simple math and apply it to our student population in Grades 1 to 12, 65 percent is about 17.5 million?” Gatchalian further pressed.

“I agree, that’s correct. We have for the public schools, they’re like 27 million students for the DepEd (Department of Education),” Madrid said.

“Is it safe to conclude that 17.5 million students experienced some form of bullying in our country?” Gatchalian again asked, to which Madrid answered in the affirmative.

The senator also presented statistics that show that there is a direct relationship between being bullied and the performance of students, and it can be seen that their scores in math and science are lower than children who have not been bullied.

“Scores of students in math go down as they experience being bullied. (Students) who were never bullied scored 351 points in Math. Those who were bullied scored only 269 points – a difference of 82 points,” Madrid added.

Gatchalian expressed belief that bullying is a big problem in the education sector, which should be addressed to ensure that students will perform better.

“Bullying is an education problem. If we want to address learners’ performance and learning outcomes, we have to make sure that the school environment is safe and conducive to the confidence of our students,” he said.

“Bullying creates an environment of fear among students. A lot of them drop out and are not comfortable to go to school, hence, we see a lot of low scores,” he added.

Based on DepEd’s records, cases of bullying increased since the anti-bullying law took effect in 2013 as more people have started reporting bullying, especially in schools.

The DepEd reported that 1,309 cases of bullying were reported in Academic Year 2013-2014; 5,624 cases in AY 2014-2015; 7,221 cases in AY 2015-2016; 8,750  cases in AY 2016-2017;  15,866 cases in AY 2017-2018; 21,521 incidents in AY 2018-2019, and 11,637 cases in AY 2019-2020.

DepEd Assistant Secretary Dexter Galban noted that the highest number of bullying cases were from 2018 to 2019, which was at 21,521, while the figure dropped to 11,637 in 2020, which he attributed to the shift from face-to-face to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gatchalian raised the possibility of underreporting, as many victims of bullying do not report for fear of retaliation.

He said the 21,000 cases of bullying as recorded by the DepEd was far from the 17 million incidents.

“There is massive underreporting on the school level… I think there is a problem here also of victims not reporting, and that is a big problem. How do we help them?” he asked.

Galban said the DepEd intends to create new avenues to directly report, like designing a program where learners can directly report bullying incidents through tele-safe centers to gather reports from learners.

“We are hoping that we will be able to establish regional and immediate action,” he said.

For Sen. Robinhood Padilla, the process of reporting bullying cases should be improved to protect students who will report and complain about bullying.

Gatchalian agreed with Padilla and told the DepEd to “improve your mechanisms in terms of reporting.”

“A lot of students are scared of reporting. We can see there is a disparity among assessment agencies versus what is on the ground. That leads us to the conclusion that our units on the ground are not functioning,” Gatchalian said.

“Most of the perpetrators experience physical violence from family members. Physical violence at home, when we see a bully we know, that behavior reflects what a bully is experiencing at home. He himself is suffering from physical violence. Sexual violence at home and very high domestic violence at home – mother and father fight each other. The behavior of a bully is a reflection of what is happening at home, most of the time,” Madrid said.