A recent congressional hearing reported an alarming rise in violence in Philippine public schools following the country's first reported student-perpetrated mass shooting, which left three people dead in Tacloban City last month.
File photo of men carrying one of the victims of the fatal shooting at San Jose National High School in Tacloban, Leyte, in central Philippines on June 22. Photos by RMN Tacloban Facebook
Senate Committee on Basic Education chairperson Senator Bam Aquino revealed several "troubling incidents in public schools such as bomb threats, stabbing, and recovery of firearms and ammunition" during a hearing on Thursday.
“Twelve incidents in 20 days. Is this really happening? Or is it being reported now because of what happened in Tacloban?” Aquino asked.
Philippine Department of Education (DepEd) undersecretary Malcolm Garma admitted school violence had been reported even before the Tacloban incident, but these became more frequent after the June 22 school shooting.
“Such incidents increased after the Tacloban incident. I think majority of that which really concerned DepEd are the threats, bomb threats and shooting threats,” the education executive said. Garma further revealed that in the department’s meeting with the Philippine National Police (PNP), such incidents always have the tendency of being copied.
He said DepEd needs help in preventing the “copycat phenomenon.”
Violent online games
Undersecretary Garma told the hearing DepEd also received information that more downloads of the video game Gorebox happened after the Tacloban incident. Authorities said one of those involved in the Tacloban shooting was into playing Gorebox.
“What we cannot prevent really are three things: Number one is the intention of the learner, second is the motivation, and number three and I think the most important one is the influence. So even if we secure our schools in terms of the facilities, if there’s the intention, influence and the motivation, they may commit violence,” Garma said.
Earlier, education secretary Sonny Angara voiced the same concern, saying “It’s not just a peace and order problem. We see the need to manage our youth because they are exposed to a lot of violence online,” Angara told reporters.
On the same day of the Senate hearing, eight schools in San Fernando City, Pampanga, received online bomb threats but were later declared free of explosive materials by police bomb experts. San Fernando police said the affected institutions included one high school and seven elementary schools.
Also on Thursday, police arrested a 16-year-old student on his way to school with a Philippine Army-issued handgun in Tupi, South Cotabato. He was intercepted before reaching the school gates with a Glock 17 9mm pistol, along with two magazines loaded with 32 rounds of ammunition.
Worsening violence
Philippine Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian pointed out during the hearing that 41.2 per cent of Filipino students have been threatened by other students, based on a Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) survey.
Gatchalian agreed that violent online content influence behavior among Filipino youth and students, prompting him to file a bill banning social media use for 16 years old and below.
Gatchalian rues that Meta, owner of the social media network Facebook, has failed in following its own 13-year old ban. “In the PSA survey, 90 per cent of Filipino children 13 years old and younger have social media accounts,” Gatchalian said. “As young as 10 years old, they play online games, exposing them to strangers,” he added.
Values development
Meanwhile, Catholic educators in the Philippines urged the public education system to prioritise character development and values of students amid increasing school violence. In a statement, the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) urged DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education to focus not only on the academic achievement and workforce readiness of learners, but also in developing their well-being.
"These recent events further remind us that education reform must continue to uphold a holistic view of the learner - one that advances academic achievement and workforce readiness while also nurturing character, values, emotional well-being, and social responsibility," CEAP said
"These tragic events, which claimed lives and inflicted serious injuries, mark a harrowing escalation from bullying and peer conflicts to outright killings," it added.
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