Moved by the bullying endured by a special needs student, Bagong Henerasyon (BH) Party-list Rep. Robert Nazal is pushing for the institutionalization of stronger, responsive and more pro-active mechanisms to combat bullying in educational institutions.

Nazal, an assistant minority leader in the House of Representatives--cited a recent incident posted by content creator Benjo Dimaandal--better known from his Facebook page “Tricycle Diaries"--involving his son Lukas who was viciously assaulted in school by his schoolmates.

In the now viral video, Dimaandal narrated how his son was struck in his face with a motorcycle helmet that left him seriously injured.

“What was disturbing about the incident was how the concerned school did nothing to immediately provide the appropriate interventions to treat the child and to hold the bullies accountable for their actions,” Nazal said.

According to Dimaandal, the incident was not reported to him and his injured son was not given the proper medical attention for approximately four hours.

He only learned about what happened to Lukas, who has special needs and has difficulty defending himself, when he fetched him at his school.

As for the bullies who assaulted Lukas, they were punished with a three-day suspension and ordered to clean the classrooms as provided for in the school’s handbook.

“Ang mga paaralan natin ay tinuturing na safe spaces para sa ating mga anak. Pero sa mga nakikita natin ngayon sa mga balita ay kabaligtaran ang nangyayari. Dumarami ang mga bayolenteng insidente na nagaganap sa mga paaralan, at mga pananakit ng pisikal at emosyonal sa kamay ng mga bully,” Nazal said.

(Our schools are considered safe spaces for our children. But what we are seeing now in the news is the opposite. Violent incidents in schools are increasing, along with physical and emotional harm at the hands of bullies.)

As a response to this, Nazal has filed House Bill (HB) No. 10543 or the proposed Safe Schools and Violence Prevention Act of 2026, which seeks to make educational institutions more responsive to bullying and violent incidents.

“Schools must be places of learning, development, and security. Yet verified data show that bullying remains a serious concern. A school cannot provide quality education when warning signs are ignored, parents are informed too late, injured learners are not immediately assessed, or serious violence is reduced to nominal discipline,” he said in his bill.

“Ang ligtas na paaralan ay institusyong handing umiwas sa panganib, tumugon agad, at managot sa bawat batang ipinagkatiwala rito,” added the party-list solon.

(A safe school is an institution ready to avoid danger, respond immediately, and be accountable for every child entrusted to it.)

The bill calls for the establishment of a unified National Safe Schools Framework covering prevention, protection, preparedness, response, and recovery across public and private basic, higher and technical-vocational education institutions, jointly formulated by Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

Schools will be required to conduct annual safety risk assessments and maintain an updated School Safety and Emergency Preparedness Plan addressing crisis management, medical response, inclusive arrangements, and learning continuity.

The Nazal measure mandates the establishment of multidisciplinary threat assessment and intervention teams in all educational institutions.

Confidential reporting channels will be established to encourage whistleblowers to report bullying without fear of repercussions.

Educational institutions will be required to provide immediate protection, medical checks, evidence tracking, victim care, and child-sensitive probes for serious violence—requiring parent notification within 15 minutes of school awareness of the incident.

Injured learners must be attended to and assessed immediately and depending on the gravity of the incident, formal medical transfer and screening for hidden head trauma would be done to ensure the safety of the victim.

The bill prohibits the tampering of relevant incident records under legal notice and subjects severe violations, including fatalities, weapon use and cover-ups to external reviews by education authorities.

“We call for the immediate passage of this measure as a matter of urgent concern. Our children should be safe in schools as their home away from home. We cannot allow bullying and incidents of violence to go on unchecked because doing so could result in irreparable damage and worse, loss of life,” Nazal said.