Following the case of the Ateneo De Manila University student who was dismissed for bullying and beating another student, former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile called for a review of Republic Act 10627, or the anti-bullying law, to give it more teeth.
“Obviously, there is a need to revisit Republic Act 10627,” Enrile said in an interview.
He said he wanted to push for a thorough consideration of the facts of the case to lay down the groundwork for amendments.
“First, I have to restudy the present law. Second, I have to study the facts of each of the incidents that have so far happened violating the law. Third, I have to hear the concerned parties,” said Enrile who is seeking a return to the Senate in next year’s elections.
“Only then will I be able to craft the necessary amendatory legislation.”
Enrile said Ateneo’s efforts to prevent the further spread of the viral video of the bullying would not be effective.
“I do not think the desire of Ateneo de Manila to stop the spread of the video will fly. That would seriously curtail the freedom of the people to inform and to be informed,” Enrile said.
In an earlier statement on his Facebook page, Enrile said he had also been a victim of bullying as a second-year high school student in Aparri, Cagayan.
“One morning, when I was on my way to my classroom on the second floor of our school building, four older male students rushed out of a door behind me and attacked me with their knives. I was completely taken by surprise and surrounded. I dropped my books and parried their assaults with my bare hands,” Enrile said.
“To save my life, I managed to jump out of a window. Upon landing on the ground below, blood was oozing from the right side of my neck, my left arm had a long and ugly cut, my belly was ripped, and my shirt and pants were red with blood.”
After the incident, Enrile said, he filed a case against his attackers, who were “the kids of some members of the Board of Trustees of the school” and had “all the lawyers in town” while he had no lawyer. As a result, his case was dismissed and he was even expelled.
“This incident defined the course of my life. I wanted to be an engineer because math was easy for me, but I shifted to law because of the injustice I had suffered,” Enrile said.
“Parents should go out of their way to inculcate to their children the virtue of kindness to others, especially those who are deprived and powerless.
“To the young people: Learn to exercise charity to your neighbors, especially the weak and needy. Do not use your gift from God”•your keen mind, your physical strength, your affluence, your power or whatever to take advantage or dominate others.”
Meanwhile, Senator Leila de Lima expressed concern over the reported incidents of bullying even as she called on the authorities to probe them to find out its root cause.
A known human rights defender here and abroad, De Lima underscored the importance of knowing why bullying happens in the first place, and to find ways that would prevent it from happening again.
“This isn’t schoolyard bullying, this sounds like expert-level sadism. He learned it from somewhere,” she said in her recent Dispatch from Crame No. 239.
“And that’s the important thing to investigate: Where or why is a child so young exposed to such level of abuse? Is there abuse in the family? In his circle of relatives? At school? Among his peers? From figures of authority?” De Lima said.