EDITORIAL - Bullying capital

For several years now, education stakeholders have raised the need for mental health services in schools. The calls were made amid rising cases of bullying and suicide in high school and even in elementary school. Recent deadly violent incidents in schools bring greater urgency to dealing with the problem.

The latest is the fatal stabbing of two Grade 8 students in a public high school in Las Piñas by three schoolmates. Probers said one of the victims had switched off the light in the school toilet where one of the suspects was playing an online game on his cell phone.

That evening after classes were dismissed, the boy and his cousin were set upon by the suspect and two schoolmates. One boy was stabbed in the chest and the other in the neck. Both died in a nearby hospital.

The attack came on the heels of the fatal stabbing of a Grade 8 student in Parañaque by a male classmate who according to probers resented the victim’s refusal to lend him her makeup kit. The suspect reportedly complained of being bullied in school including by the victim.

In February, two students in a public high school in Pasig were also stabbed during a brawl on campus. The two boys survived.

Bullying was mentioned as one of the factors behind the dismal performance of Filipino 15-year-old students in the first two times that the country participated in the Program for International Student Assessment. Both times, the PISA results showed the Philippines having the highest percentage of bullying in schools.

PISA results in 2019 showed that 65 percent of Filipino students reported being bullied a few times a month and 40 percent at least once a week. In the 2022 PISA results, about a third of Filipino students reported being bullied in school – way above the global average of about one-fifth for both girls and boys.

Between November 2022 and April 2025, the Department of Education received 658 complaints of bullying in school. Of the 45,000 public schools in the country, however, only 966 have fully functioning anti-bullying committees, according to DepEd. The country also has an acute lack of mental health professionals, with volunteer groups instead trying to fill the gap in providing counseling for suicide prevention.

It’s possible, however, to train people in guidance counseling for schools, especially for teenagers. Officials must move to provide at least one trained counselor per school as soon as possible. For troubled youths, it could spell the difference between life and death.