HIGH school students in Iloilo City. (Tara Yap)
ILOILO CITY – The Department of Education (DepEd) has said that around 95 percent – 867 out of 966 – of school-based bullying cases in Western Visayas region were resolved during school year 2025-2026.
Leonerico Barredo, chief of DepEd-6 Education Support Services Division, said only 99 cases of bullying are still under monitoring.
The high rate of resolving bullying cases was attributed to schools having their own localized mechanisms.
Physical bullying and cyber bullying were among the top types recorded during the last school year. Verbal and gender-based bullying were also recorded.
The regional capital of Iloilo City had the highest number of bullying cases with 452, followed by the island-province of Guimaras with 213; 119 in Capiz province, including the capital Roxas City; 104 in Iloilo province, including eight in the component city of Passi; 76 in Antique province, and two in Aklan province.
Anti-bullying mechanisms were also strengthened with this year’s launching of We are Child Advocates for Resilience and Empathy (We CARE) students’ protection program. We CARE is anchored on three components – enhanced system of monitoring, responsive interventions, and capacity building.
With the fatal shooting in a school in Tacloban City and growing number of violent incidents, DepEd-6 reiterated that safety of students is always a shared responsibility.
DepEd-6 Regional Director Cristito A. Eco urged the community to be proactive, especially parents to help monitor their children.
Meanwhile, DepEd-6 Information Officer Hernani Escullar Jr. said they are awaiting results of the investigation by the DepEd-Schools Division of Iloilo and the police on the Grade 10 student in Iloilo who was caught with gun in his backpack recently.