DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 13 July) – Councilor Enzo Villafuerte is calling for the enactment of an anti-bullying ordinance in Davao City during his very first privilege speech on Tuesday.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod Building of Davao City. Photo from the Davao City Government web page.
“The normalization of bullying is a slippery slope. It invites us to accept that destructive behavior cannot be countenanced since it is usual practice, even a predisposition. This cannot be,” he said.
Villafuerte – chair of the city council’s committee on civil, political, and human rights – pointed out that his proposal is different from Republic Act No. 10627 (Anti-Bullying Act of 2013) as the latter is focused only in the school setting.
RA 20627 requires all elementary and secondary schools to adopt policies to prevent and address the acts of bullying in their institutions, which enhances the Department of Education’s Child Protection Policy of 2012. The latter protects children from any act of child abuse, exploitation, violence, discrimination, bullying, and other related offenses.
In an interview over Radyo Pilipinas Davao, Villafuerte said that they aim to strengthen RA 10627 by extending it beyond educational institutions.
He noted that Article 19 of the New Civil Code serves as a telling guide on the proper conduct of human relations: “Every person must, in the exercise of his rights and in the performance of his duties, act with justice, give everyone his due, and observe honesty and good faith.”
Davao City has an existing anti-discrimination ordinance, which punishes acts and conduct of discrimination based on sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, descent, national or ethnic origin, and religious affiliation or beliefs. Villafuerte said it may be similar, but his proposed anti-bullying ordinance will have different provisions.
The city council approved the motion that Villafuerte’s privilege speech be considered part of the first reading of the anti-bullying ordinance of Davao City.
Numerous cases of bullying had been occurring in Davao City.
In 2015, the daughter of Hon. Paolo Duterte was allegedly stabbed by a classmate with scissors and also twisted her arm.
In another case in January 2020, the father of a Grade 9 student filed a complaint when his son’s classmate did a voting poll online where they surveyed whether to have him physically beaten. (Veda Sachi C. Daliling / UP Mindanao intern)
