What Is Bullying?

Bullying is the use of force, coercion, or threat, to abuse,

aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behaviour is often repeated and habitual. One
essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imbalance of
physical or social power. This imbalance distinguishes bullying from conflict. Bullying
is a subcategory of aggressive behaviour characterized by the following three minimum
criteria: (1) hostile intent, (2) imbalance of power, and (3) repetition over a period of
time. Bullying is the activity of repeated, aggressive behaviour intended to hurt another
individual, physically, mentally, or emotionally. In order to be considered bullying, the
behaviour 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 behaviours happen more than once or have the potential to happen more
than once.

Bullying is not the same as conflict between people (like having a fight) or disliking someone,
even though people might bully each other because of conflict or dislike.
Bullying can happen anywhere. It can be in schools, at home, at work, in online social spaces, via
text messaging or via email. It can be physical, verbal, emotional, and it also includes messages,
public statements and behaviour online intended to cause distress or harm (also known
as cyberbullying). But no matter what form bullying takes, the results can be the same: severe
distress and pain for the person being bullied. 
 Laws & Policies
Bullying is an issue for almost a century. Lots of cases happened and due to
this, people became more aware and bolder to appeal for a request to end this
kind of oppression. Though not enough, our government and congress have
made several powerful laws that promotes anti-bullying in different aspects
and it is continuously growing depending on the new cases happening in our
country. Here are the laws the Philippines has made throughout the century.
 REPUBLIC ACT 10627 (Anti-Bullying Act of 2013)
Signed into law in September 2013, this seeks to prevent and address bullying
in elementary and secondary schools. Under this law, “bullying refers to 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," among others. It may also mean any of the following:
1. Any unwanted physical contact between the bully and the victim like punching, pushing, shoving, kicking, slapping,
tickling, headlocks, inflicting school pranks, teasing, fighting and the use of available objects as weapons;

2. Any act that causes damage to a victim’s psyche and/or emotional well-being;

3. Any slanderous statement or accusation that causes the victim undue emotional distress like directing foul language
or profanity at the target, name-calling, tormenting and commenting negatively on victim’s looks, clothes and body;

4. “Cyber- bullying” or any bullying done through the use of technology or any electronic means. The term shall also
include any conduct resulting to harassment, intimidation, or humiliation, through the use of other forms of
technology, such as, but not limited to texting, email, instant messaging, chatting, internet, social media, online games,
or other platforms or formats as defined in DepED Order No. 40, s. 2012; and

5. Any other form of bullying as may be provided in the school’s child protection or anti-bullying policy, consistent
with the Act and this IRR. Private schools that fail to comply with the requirements of R.A. 10627 will face penalties.

​
 CHILD PROTECTION POLICY DepEd Order NO. 40,

-series 2012 institutionalized zero tolerance against any form of violence

against the child and provided for the establishment of a Child Protection
Committee (CPC) in all public and private schools.
REPUBLIC ACT 7610 (1992) or the Anti-Child Abuse Law RA 7610 or the Special
Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act provides special
protection to children from all forms of abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation and discrimination.

​Under Article 1, Section 3 of the law refers to child abuse as the maltreatment, whether
habitual or not, of the child which includes psychological and physical abuse, neglect, cruelty,
sexual abuse and emotional maltreatment.

​Meanwhile, Article VI, Section 10 of the law states that any person who shall commit any
other acts of child abuse, cruelty or exploitation shall suffer the penalty of prison mayor in its
minimum period.
PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 603 The Child and Youth
Welfare Code or PD No. 603 was signed in 1974 by then president Ferdinand Marcos.

It states the importance of the child, his rights and responsibilities as well as the role that the state,
school and his parents play in promoting his general welfare.

Under Article 3, it guarantees the child's right to protection against exploitation, improper
influences, hazards, and other conditions or circumstances prejudicial to his physical, mental,
emotional, social and moral development.
REPUBLIC ACT No. 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare
Act of 2006 The Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 was signed into law on April 28, 2006
by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The law establishes a comprehensive juvenile justice
and welfare system. It also created the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council under the Department
of Justice. Under Section 13, it states the responsibility of the educational system that should work
together with families, community organizations and agencies in the prevention of juvenile
delinquency and in the

prevention of juvenile delinquency and in the rehabilitation and reintegration of child in conflict
with the law.
Cases
Every person may have experienced of being bullied. And almost of the
students in every school may have experienced this that may have lead them to
not go to school. This can affect their self confident and self - esteem.
Cases of Bullying
According to a study, 1 in 3 students in the U.S. claimed to have been bullied once in school. Along with the ascending number of
awareness on bullying are the thought of some of of these cases’ descending number. But not every school are surveyed and
studied, so how can we properly assess the rates of bullying? In the Philippines, reported bullying cases have reached up to 21% in
schools that is 6,363 by 2014, In comparison to only a year gap in 2013’s 5,236 cases.

And as students with some of the experience share our thoughts for we believe through awareness and proper education on this and
their relevance, everyone can experience the modernity and maturity of human rights.

Here are specific cases of bullying in the Philippines:

"l (AJHS) launched an investigation after several videos of a student bullying peers on campus went viral online.

These videos showed a student, clad in uniform, attacking a boy in a bathroom after forcing him to choose between "bugbog o
dignidad" (getting a beating or keeping his dignity).

The student elaborated on how the scenario would go if the boy would choose to keep his dignity instead: "Kasi kung pinili niya
ang dignidad, papaluhurin ko siya, tapos hahalikan niya ang pareho kong sapatos, tapos ipapahalikan ko sa kanya 'yung bayag ko."
(If he chooses to keep his dignity, I would make him kneel, kiss my shoes, and kiss my genitals.)

Another video showed the same student forcing a peer to say, "Bobo ako" (I am dumb), along with a threat: "Halikan mo na
sapatos ko, para 'di kita bugbugin." (Kiss my shoes, so I won't beat you up.)" - Rappler
"A Grade 9 student in Catanduanes who was badly beaten up for failing to give money to school bullies suffered head injuries
which may need a costly medical operation to heal.
Rodney (real name witheld), 15 years old, sustained a blood clot in the head aside from a fractured skull after he was mauled by
older schoolmates in Bagamanoc Rural Development High School.
He was unconscious when he was first rushed to the Bagamanoc rural health unit (RHU). After two hours, while still out cold, he
was brought to the Eastern Bicol Medical Center of Catanduanes. Though he regained consciousness, Rodney still spent almost a
week there.
Doctors in Catanduanes recommended that Rodney be brought to the Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital (BRTTH) in
Legazpi City to check the extent of his head injuries. It was the doctors in BRTTH who diagnosed Rodney's fracture and the blood
clot.
Rodney said that since the start of the school year, 7 Grade 11 students, led by Jeffrey (real name witheld) ,15 years old, kept
badgering him to give them P50 to P100.
“I had to ask extra money from my mother despite our being poor just to give it to Jeffrey so I could be their friend,” Perez told
Rappler. He added: “But when I found out that they were using marijuana, I decided to leave their group.”
On the morning of July 25, Jeffrey and his gang again accosted Rodney. This time though Rodney had to refuse them because his
mother did not give him extra money that day.
Rodney said Jeffrey then told him to step out of the school building for a conversation. Shortly, while still walking, Rodney recalled
that he felt a hard object slammed to his head.
“Sinuntok n’ya ako sa ulo na parang may hawak na bato. Mas malaki at mataas siya sa akin. Tapos binuhat nya ako at inihampas sa
cemento nung hindi ko siya nabigyan ng P50 pesos. Sumuka ako ng dugo yon ang naalala ko bago mawalan ng malay,” he said.
(He punched my head with something hard, like a rock. He is bigger and taller than me. Then he pounded my head to the pavement
because I could not give him money. The last thing I remembered before losing consciousness was I started to vomit blood.)" -
Rappler
 Types Of Bullying
Bullying can classify in to different types. Bullying is everywhere so
maybe there is a differencent kind of bullying. Bullying can be
classified into many distinct types.
 Types of Bullying
There are many different types of bullying that can be experienced by children and adults alike,
some are obvious to spot while others can be more subtle. The different types of bullying that we
look at below are some of the ways that bullying could be happening.

1.Physical bullying
Physical bullying includes hitting, kicking, tripping, pinching and pushing or damaging property.
Physical bullying causes both short term and long term damage. 

2.Verbal bullying
Verbal bullying includes name calling, insults, teasing, intimidation, homophobic or racist
remarks, or verbal abuse. While verbal bullying can start off harmless, it can escalate to levels
which start affecting the individual target. Keep reading in this section for techniques to deal
with verbal bullying.
3.Social bullying
Social bullying, sometimes referred to as covert bullying, is often harder to recognise and can be carried out behind
the bullied person's back. It is designed to harm someone's social reputation and/or cause humiliation. Social bullying
includes:
lying and spreading rumours
negative facial or physical gestures, menacing or contemptuous looks
playing nasty jokes to embarrass and humiliate
mimicking unkindly
encouraging others to socially exclude someone
damaging someone's social reputation or social acceptance.

4.Cyber bullying
Cyber bullying can be overt or covert bullying behaviours using digital technologies, including hardware such as
computers and smartphones, and software such as social media, instant messaging, texts, websites and other online
platforms. Cyber bullying can happen at any time. It can be in public or in private and sometimes only known to the
target and the person bullying. Cyber bullying can include:
Abusive or hurtful texts emails or posts, images or videos
Deliberately excluding others online
Nasty gossip or rumours
Imitating others online or using their log-in