Philippine President inks anti-bullying law

MANILA - Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III has approved the law against bullying in schools.

Aquino signed Republic Act No 10627 or the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013 on September 12 but it was only released Wednesday.

The following are considered as bullying: unwanted physical contact between the bully and the victim, one that causes damage to victim's psyche and/or emotional well-being, slanderous statement that causes the victim undue emotional distress and cyber-bullying.

The new law calls for all elementary and secondary schools to adopt policies to address the existence of bullying in their respective institutions.

"All elementary and secondary schools shall provide students and their parents or guardians a copy of the anti-bullying policies being adopted by the school," the law states.

Under the law, education officials are required to train school administrators and teachers to develop their knowledge and skills in preventing or responding to any bullying act.

The school principal or any person who holds a comparable role shall be responsible for the implementation and oversight policies intended to address bullying.

The Education Secretary was authorized to prescribe the appropriate administrative sanctions on school administrators who would fail to comply with the requirements under the new law, and erring private schools would also suffer the penalty of suspension of their permits to operate.