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:

1. Teasing
2. Name-calling
3. Inappropriate sexual comments
4. Taunting
5. Threatening to cause harm
• Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone’s reputation
or relationships. Social bullying includes:
1. Leaving someone out on purpose
2. Telling other children not to be friends with someone
3. Spreading rumors about someone
4. Embarrassing someone in public
• Physical bullying involves hurting a person’s body or possessions. Physical bullying includes:
1. Hitting/kicking/pinching
2. Spitting
3. Tripping/pushing
4. Taking or breaking someone’s things
5. 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 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 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
indicates that, nationwide, 19% of students in grades 9–12 report being bullied on school property
in the 12 months preceding the survey.
https://www.stopbullying.gov/what-is-bullying/index.html

BULLYING VICTIMS, PARENTS NOT HELPLESS UNDER PH LAWS

BY: Ma. Cristina Arayata of Philippine News Agency (PNA)

MANILA -- It's school opening time again, and the issue of bullying is cropping up anew. Bullied students-
-and their parents as well--need not be helpless.

Under Philippine laws, bullies can face the consequences of their actions, even charged criminally.

"The targets or students and their parents are protected, and can avail of legal remedies provided under the
law," lawyer Amado Aquino III told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

Aquino pointed to Republic Act No. 10627, or the Act Requiring All Elementary and Secondary Schools
to Adopt Policies to Prevent and Address the Acts of Bullying in their Institutions.

RA 10627 enables students to anonymously report bullying. Although disciplinary administrative action
would not be taken based on an anonymous report alone, bullies are still subject to punishment once the
report is established as true.

The law requires the school principal or any authorized representative to report to the law enforcement
agencies if he or she believes the bullying is tantamount to a crime and, thus, criminal charges may be
pursued under the Revised Penal Code.

The law says students, parents, or any member of the school administration may report bullying instances
or act of retaliation that they have witnessed. Then school principal will either notify the police, take
disciplinary administrative action, notify the parents or guardians of the bully, or notify the parents or
guardians of the victim regarding the action taken to prevent any further acts of bullying.

For non-compliance of RA 1067, the Secretary of the Department of Education shall prescribe the
appropriate administrative sanctions on school administrators. Erring private schools shall likewise suffer
the penalty of suspension of their permits to operate.

Types of bullying

Based on section 2 of RA 1067, bullying takes many forms.

It 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 student; infringing on the rights of the
other student at school; or materially and substantially disrupting the education process or the orderly
operation of a school.”

The law says bullying may be in the form of pranks, teasing, fighting, and the use of available objects as
weapons; any act that causes damage to the victim's psyche or emotional well-being.

For the sharp-tongued, bullying can also be any slanderous statement of accusation that causes the victim
undue emotional distress like direct directing foul language or profanity at the target, name-calling,
tormenting, and commenting negatively on the victim's looks, clothes, or body.

Cyber-bullying or any bullying done through the use of technology or any electronic means is also bullying
punishable under the law.

Aquino classifies bullying into five basic forms: physical, verbal, relational aggression, cyberbullying, and
sexual bullying.

The lawyer said physical bullying is often the easiest to identify, as this usually involves hitting, kicking,
destroying, or stealing property.

Verbal bullying is name-calling, insulting, threatening, intimidating, and also racist remarks and sexist
comments.

Relational aggression, Aquino said, uses relationships to control or hurt others. This includes talking behind
a person's back, spreading rumors, etc.

Cyberbullying is in the use of social media, instant messaging apps, and any information technology.

Sexual bullying, Aquino said, involves humiliating words that target a person sexually, making vulgar
gestures, uninvited touching, name-calling, and the likes.

Aquino also cited Senator Juan Edgardo Angara's anti-bullying bill, which seeks to amend the existing anti-
bullying law, by including penalizing teachers and other school personnel, who, themselves, bully the
students.

"Senate Bill No. 2793 aims to give more teeth to the DepEd (Department of Education) order by penalizing
a teacher or any other school personnel who commits acts of bullying to a student, with a fine of not less
than PHP50,000 but not more than PHP100,000 and/or by imprisonment from six months to a year," Aquino
said.

He continued: "If the bullying resulted in the student attempting to commit suicide, the penalty will be a
fine of not less than PHP100,000 but not more than PHP500,000 and/or imprisonment of one to three years.
If the suicide attempt results in the death of the victim, the penalty will be a fine of not less than PHP500,000
but not more than PHP1 million and/or imprisonment of three to six years."

Senate Bill No. 2793 is yet to be signed by the President, he added.

How can parents identify if their kids are being bullied?

Website verywellfamily.com enumerated some tips to help parents see signs that kids might be the targets
of bullies.

1. If they say a lot of "drama" at school or if they say that others are "messing" with them.

Take note of what happened and how they felt. Assure the kids that they did not cause the bullying, and
give them tips on how to overcome the experience.

2. "Vanishing friends"

Know your kids' circle of friends. If you notice that some of them are vanishing or the kids are no longer
inviting them to your house, that can be a sign that the kid is being bullied.

3. Changes in mood

Verywellfamilydotcom stated that kids who are being bullied may appear anxious, clingy, or withdrawn.
Some may also exhibit low self-esteem.

4. Minor injuries or health complaints

Parents should not only check if the kids have bruises or wounds. Take notice if the child complains of
frequent headaches and other ailments.

5. Binge eating

Somebody might have destroyed their lunch, so they binge eat when they get home. Others might also skip
meals to avoid being bullied.

6. Change in sleeping pattern

A change in their sleeping habits could be because they experience nightmares. Sleeping more than normal,
crying until they fall asleep could also be indicators that the child is being bullied.

7. Failing grades
This is because bullied children may find it difficult to focus on schoolwork.

8. Lost possessions

DECEPTION

Philippine officials demanded an apology Friday from Human Rights Watch (HRW), claiming it employed
a strategy of deception in its reporting by painting the country as lawless in an anti-drug crackdown that
has killed thousands.

In December, the U.S.-based global rights watchdog had criticized President Rodrigo Duterte for putting
the national police back on the frontlines of his administration bloody war on narcotics.

HRW “has consistently and deliberately been misleading the international community by making it appear
that the Philippines has become the Wild, Wild West of Asia where we just kill people left and right,”
Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said.

“To make such sweeping accusations without being able to support these claims with facts is not just
misrepresentation. It is outright deception,” Cayetano added, challenging the rights group to explain “how
it was able to arrive at its numbers” without any investigation on the ground.

Duterte previously stripped the force of a lead role in the crackdown following complaints about three
teenagers who were gunned down by cops last year after being wrongfully suspected of being drug dealers.
Within the past two weeks, at least five suspects have been killed and nearly 100 others arrested in police
raids in the Philippines.

“The claims of Human Rights Watch that there are more than 12,000 victims in the campaign against illegal
drugs could not be possible since this number failed to take into consideration the number of homicides and
murders that have also been taking place all across the country,” Cayetano said.

“In making such a conclusion, Human Rights Watch is creating the impression that the Philippine
government is engaged in the wholesale slaughter of innocent people. This assertion is false.”

‘Unfair accusations’

From the time Duterte took office in June 2016 until the end of November 2017, the national police recorded
18,491 homicides. Of this figure, 3,968 people were drug suspects killed in more than 80,000 police
operations, in which at least 119,000 people were arrested.

The nearly 4,000 killings claimed by the government exclude the nightly slayings of drug suspects who
were found with signboards proclaiming they were drug addicts or pushers. Police denied involvement in
those deaths.

By contrast, during the first five years of the government of President Benigno Aquino III, official figures
showed an average of at least 12,000 murders annually, Cayetano said.
HRW “owes the Philippines and the rest of the international community not just an explanation, but also
an apology for making unfair accusations by skewing the real numbers just so it could advance its own
agenda,” he said.

FAKE NEWS

As internet usage rises among adults in the Philippines, a large majority of Filipinos are viewing the issue
of fake news and false information as a serious concern, revealed a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey
released this week Looking at results from two surveys conducted from December 8-16, 2017, and March
23-27, 2018, SWS found that when averaged, 42 percent of respondents were internet users — a slight
uptick from 41 percent in June 2017, but a large one throughout the years.

“The annual average proportion of Internet users nationwide was nine percent when SWS first surveyed it
in 2006.  It rose to 11 percent in 2017 and increased steadily to 38 percent in 2017,” said SWS about its
published survey on Monday, June 11.

Among the internet users, an average of 67 percent saw the problem of fake news as a serious concern —
 40 percent thought the issue was very serious, and 26 percent saw it as being somewhat serious.On average,
20 percent were undecided, and 13 percent thought fake news as not being a serious problem. (Nine percent
said it was somewhat not serious, and 4 percent said it wasn’t serious at all.)

The survey found that the perceived seriousness of fake news on the internet was directly related to the
frequency of internet usage.

“The March 2018 survey found that 51 percent among those who seldom use the Internet said the fake news
problem is serious, followed by 64 percent among those who use it a few days per week and those who use
it less than an hour daily, 69 percent among those who use it 1-2 hours daily, and 77 percent among those
who use it 3 hours or more daily,” said SWS.

Fake news problem in media

When asked how serious of a problem the spread of fake news was in media like television, radio, and
newspapers, 60 percent of adult Filipinos in the December 2017 survey said it was a serious problem with
29 percent saying it was very serious, and 31 percent saying somewhat serious.Twenty seven percent were
undecided on whether the spread of fake news in media was a problem.  Thirteen percent said it wasn’t
serious.

Government role in fake news issue

Also from the December 2017 data, 61 percent of the adult respondents believed that the government was
serious in solving the problem of fake news.  Thirty percent saw the government as being very serious, and
30 percent saw it being somewhat serious.

Undecided were 31 percent of the respondents, with eight percent thinking the government was either
somewhat not serious, or not serious at all.

Fake news problem in internet

Asked in March 2018 whether they saw fake news as a problem on the internet, a majority of respondents
believed it was a serious problem — more so for respondents from Metro Manila and Balance Luzon where
71 percent of respondents in each area saw it as a serious problem.

In Visayas, 68 percent said fake news on the internet was a serious problem.  The problem was less serious
in Mindanao, at 52 percent.

Breaking the numbers down in terms of population and area descriptors, 68 percent in urban areas saw it
was a serious problem, compared to 64 percent in rural areas.When looking at social media platforms,
Facebook had surprisingly the lowest — though still high — percentage of users that saw fake news as a
serious problem.  Users were slightly higher on YouTube at 68 percent, followed by Viber at 75 percent,
and Instagram at 77 percent.

The surveys were conducted from December 8-16, 2017, and March 23-27, 2018, and gathered results from
1,200 adults (18 years and older) through face-to-face interviews across the country. This Bill seeks to
penalize any person who maliciously offer, publish, distribute, circulate and spread false news or
information or cause the publication, distribution, circulation or spreading of the same in print, broadcast
or online media.

PHYSICAL ABUSE AND SEXUAL ABUSE

Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is usually undesired sexual behavior by one person upon
another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. When force is immediate, of
short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or
(often pejoratively) molester. The term also covers any behavior by an adult or older adolescent towards a
child to stimulate any of the involved sexually. The use of a child, or other individuals younger than the
age of consent, for sexual stimulation is referred to as child sexual abuse or statutory rape.

Types. The World Health Organization distinguishes four types of child maltreatment: physical abuse;
sexual abuse; emotional and psychological abuse; and neglect.

Physical abuse is any intentional act causing injury or trauma to another person or animal by way of bodily
contact. In most cases, children are the victims of physical abuse, but adults can also be victims, as in cases
of domestic violence or workplace aggression.

EXTORTION

Extortion (also called shakedown, outwrestling and exaction) is a criminal offense of obtaining money,
property, or services from an individual or institution, through coercion. It is sometimes euphemistically
referred to as a "protection racket" since the racketeers often phrase their demands as payment for
"protection" from (real or hypothetical) threats from unspecified other parties; though often, and almost
always, such "protection" is simply abstinence of harm from the same party, and such is implied in the
"protection" offer. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime groups. The actual obtainment of
money or property is not required to commit the offense. Making a threat of violence which refers to a
requirement of a payment of money or property to halt future violence is sufficient to commit the offense.
Exaction refers not only to extortion or the demanding and obtaining of something through force, but
additionally, in its formal definition, means the infliction of something such as pain and suffering or making
somebody endure something unpleasant.

EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS

Philippine extrajudicial killings are politically motivated murders committed by government officers,
punished by local and international law or convention. They include assassinations; deaths due to strafing
or indiscriminate firing; massacre; summary execution is done if the victim becomes passive before the
moment of death (i.e., abduction leading to death) Even if Philippine Republic Act No. 7438 provides for
the rights of persons arrested, detained, it does not punish acts of enforced disappearances. Thus, on August
27, Bayan Muna (People First), Gabriela Women's Party (GWP), and Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) filed
House Bill 2263 – "An act defining and penalizing the crime of enforced or involuntary disappearance."
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada also filed last June 30, 2007, Senate Bill No. 7 – "An Act Penalizing the Commission
of Acts of Torture and Involuntary Disappearance of Persons Arrested, Detained or Under Custodial
Investigation, and Granting Jurisdiction to the Commission on Human Rights to Conduct Preliminary
Investigation for Violation of the Custodial Rights of the Accused, Amending for this Purpose Sections 2,
3 and 4 of RA 7438, and for Other Purposes."

TERRORISMS

Republic Act No. 9372 March 6, 2007

AN ACT TO SECURE THE STATE AND PROTECT OUR PEOPLE FROM TERRORISM

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. - It is declared a policy of the State to protect life, liberty, and property from
acts of terrorism, to condemn terrorism as inimical and dangerous to the national security of the country
and to the welfare of the people, and to make terrorism a crime against the Filipino people, against humanity,
and against the law of nations.

ILLEGAL RECRUITMENT

An estimated 6,000 Filipinos leave to work overseas every single day – fathers, mothers, siblings, or even
an entire family. (INFOGRAPHIC: Getting to know the OFWs)

To secure a job overseas, OFWs and their families spend large amounts of time and money to pay for fees,
paperwork, as well as trips to and from hometowns and cities. But in many instances, prospective workers
can be scammed by illegal recruitment schemes.

According to government data, migrant workers continue to be victims of illegal recruitment despite laws
against it. A total of 1,567 illegal recruitment cases were reported to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in
2016. But this excludes cases that have either been dropped or not reported at all.For OFWs, knowing how
to avoid being a victim can spell the difference between hope and misery. Here are some ways to guide you:
REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8042

Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995

An act to institute the policies of overseas employment and establish a higher standard of protection and
promotion of the welfare of migrant workers, their families and overseas Filipinos in distress, and for other
purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress
assembled: REPUBLIC ACT No. 10022