SOCIAL Watch Philippines lauded the Department of Education for establishing a Child Protection Unit during the pandemic.

“The DepEd’s move is absolutely necessary especially at this time of pandemic where violence against children is getting worse and also gives more spaces for violence that may be committed online,” Social Watch Coordinator Janet Carandang said.

She added that the initiative “shows the World that the Philippines is sincerely committed to ending violence against children through multisectoral actions in the midst of a pandemic.”

Based on the 2015 National Baseline Survey on Violence Against Children in the Philippines, about 88 percent of Filipino children have experienced violence at home, in school, in the community and online.

Cases of violence against children during the lockdown also increased, with 2,077 cases reported in the first three months.

“The challenge for DepEd is to ensure that the Child Protection Unit is also able to monitor, issue policies, and initiate inter-agency actions to address the incidence of bullying in schools in the context of the New Normal, including cyberbullying and violence experienced by children online or in social media,” Maria Luz Anigan, head of SWP’s Child Protection, said.

“We give two thumbs up for the establishment of the DepEd’s Child Protection Unit during the pandemic. However, we know that this Unit could not do it alone. We ask that the national government consider as extremely urgent the need for multisectoral policies and actions to address the urgent challenge of ensuring that the New Normal is not resulting in more violence committed against the students,” Anigan said.

Social Watch Philippines emphasized that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries’ average on bullying in schools is 23 percent, but its 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment results revealed that in the Philippines, about 65 percent of students reported that they were bullied in school.

“The DepEd should not stop monitoring incidences of bullying among students even with online or distance education in the times of Covid19,” Anigan said.

The SWP added that the DepEd Child Protection Unit should also have interventions to address violence committed against children when they are at home.

“We all know that the children exposed to violence at home are at risk of delayed cognitive development, nutrition and mental health problems, and interpersonal and self-directed violence. This will result to higher chances of not completing education,” Anigan said.

“Meanwhile, access to the education system, with a Child Protection Unit in place, is the children’s entry point to mental health, nutrition, counseling and other support programs as well as inter-agency interventions towards ending the violence being committed against the student at home,” she added.

SWP also said that the Philippines should seriously take its commitment in the World Health Assembly Resolution on Ending Violence Against Children Through Health Systems Strengthening and Multisectoral Approaches.

Among the actions agreed upon by WHO member states during the May 2021 WHA is to support coordinated efforts across all sectors to train and equip, among others, teachers and school administrators, to prevent, identify and respond to violence against children, especially adolescent girls.

“We call for a Whole-of-Government Approach in reinforcing the new Child Protection Unit, and to make sure that it is fully funded so that it is functional and able to target the root cause of violence at the level of the student,” Carandang said.