Erile: Lawmakers need to revisit anti-bullying law Last updated Dec 27, 2018

Erile: Lawmakers need to revisit anti-bullying law

Last updated Dec 27, 2018

Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile called for a review of Republic Act No. 10627 or the anti-bullying law to suggest changes that would give the law more teeth in dealing with future instances of bullying.

“Obviously, there is a need to revisit Republic Act No. 10627,” Enrile said in a statement.

If it were up to him, the veteran lawmaker said he would push for a thorough consideration of the facts of the case to lay 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 so far happened violating the law. Third, I have to hear the concerned parties. Only then will I be able to craft the necessary amendatory legislation,” Enrile, who is seeking a comeback to the Senate in the 2019 midterm elections, said.

The former Senate President has also commented that Ateneo’s efforts to prevent further spread of the viral video will not be effective.

He said, “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.”

In an earlier statement on his Facebook page, Enrile admitted that he was also a victim of bullying as a second year student in high school at 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,” he recounted, adding:

“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, the former Senate President said that he filed a case against his attackers. He shared that his attackers were “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 later dismissed and he was even expelled from school.

He further said, “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.”