President Benigno S. Aquino III has recently approved the law against bullying in schools.
Aquino signed Republic Act No 10627 or the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013, as Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara lauded the President, calling it a huge step in protecting our children from the earliest forms of violence.
The law defines bullying as any severe or repeated use by one or more students of a written, verbal or electronic expression, or a physical act or gesture, or any combination thereof, directed at another student that has the effect of actually causing or placing the latter in reasonable fear of physical or emotional harm or damage to his property, creating a hostile environment at school for the other students.
Angara, one of the principal authors of the anti-bullying bill, admitted that his own son was a victim of bullying in school. According to the senator, a study conducted by Plan International and UNICEF on Violence Against Children in Public Schools in the Philippines in 2009 revealed that four out of 10 children in Grades 1 to 3, and seven out of 10 in both Grades 4 to 6 and high school have experienced some kind of violence in school.
