Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. Luigi Villafuerte has echoed Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sonny Angara's appeal for a bigger budget to pave the way for the hiring of more guidance counselors and other mental health professionals in public elementary and high schools.

This, as Villafuerte expressed alarm over the weekend on the surge of in-campus bullying.

“The 20th Congress can best deal with this serious concern by writing new legislation to institutionalize the hiring of mental health experts for counselling students in schools, in the hope of arresting not only the increasing rates of depression, anxiety and even self-harm or suicidal ideation among young Filipinos but of campus bullying as well,” he said in a statement.

Villafuerte cited Angara proposal for the creation of more slots for guidance counselors during the recent 2026 national budget deliberations in the House of Representatives.

For next year, the DepEd has proposed an over P2-billion budget for the hiring of 10,000 school counselor associates 1 (SCA 1) to counsel students on their mental health and well-being concerns.

Angara said the DepEd wants to create more slots for counselor associates amid the increase in campus bullying cases, which went up to 2,500 in school year (SY) 2024-2025 from the previous 2,268.

To address the lack of guidance counselors in schools in the face of rising cases of campus bullying, Angara said the DepEd scrapped over 4,000 positions so it can have funds available for hiring more counselor associates.

“With the psychological well-being of our adolescents and young people emerging as a critical public health issue—apparently aggravated by academic pressures, cyberbullying and other risks spawned by digital technologies—licensed professionals should be assigned to every public school and SUC campus to ensure that our students have available and ready access in school to professional counselling, early intervention and emotional support from these professionals or experts,” Villafuerte said.

Earlier in current 20th Congress, the Bicolano filed House Bill (HB) No. 163, wherein he pitched “the deployment of licensed mental health professionals such as psychologists, guidance counselors or psychiatric nurses to every public high school and SUC campus within three years, in coordination with the DepEd, DOH (Department of Health) and CHEd (Commission on Higher Education)".

Otherwise known as the "Mental Health and Digital Wellbeing for Youth Act of 2025," HB No.163 mandates annual mental health screenings, the establishment of safe spaces for emotional processing, and training programs for teachers in trauma-informed and empathy-based approaches.

He noted that President Marcos ordered DepEd recently to investigate with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Philippine National Police (PNP) the alarming incidents of school-based violence, and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to assist in evaluating the implementation of child protection policies in all schools.

Last August, a nine-year-old Grade 3 student in Northern Mindanao was rushed to a hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) after being reportedly mauled by five high school students.

That same month, a Grade 11 student who was allegedly upset over failing grades shot dead a teacher in a school in Lanao del Sur; and, days later, a 15-year-old female student was shot dead inside a classroom in Nueva Ecija by her former boyfriend, who subsequently shot himself dead.

Camarines Sur 5th Rep. Migz Villafuerte has filed a separate bill—HB No.1700—that likewise tackles mental health and the need for mental health professionals in schools to provide counselling and emotional support to students. It notes the rising rates of depression and anxiety, exacerbated by digital technology.

In HB No.1700, Migz mentioned a 2022 report by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Philippines showing that more than 30 percent of Filipino adolescents have experienced online harassment or cyberbullying, and that excessive screen time, algorithm-driven content, and addictive design features have been linked to the youth’s sleep disruption, emotional dysregulation and lowered academic performance.