Any student who makes a bomb threat against their school — including ones intended as a joke — will lose the ability to enroll the following year, the Department of Education said in a July 3 announcement.
The department places these actions in its most serious disciplinary tier. DepEd’s rules classify such jokes as a third level offense “because of the grave danger these acts pose to learners, school personnel, and the public.” The same category covers firearm possession, drug possession, hazing, and homicide under DepEd Order 006, s. 2026, the safe-learning-environment guidelines that Education Secretary Sonny Angara approved this past March.
A first violation carries a penalty of non-readmission: the learner is allowed to complete the ongoing school year but is blocked from enrolling for the next one, and the case is passed to outside agencies such as the Philippine National Police and the Social Welfare Development Office. Should a student commit the offense again, the consequence escalates to exclusion, meaning immediate removal from the class roster.
“Such acts trigger emergency responses, create panic, disrupt classes, and may also result in criminal liability under existing laws,” the department said in its statement.
Spreading false information or pulling pranks that sow campus confusion falls under a lighter classification. An initial incident of this kind results in a written reprimand and parental notice, a repeat brings a summons for the parents, and a third can mean up to five days of suspension paired with alternative learning arrangements.
The guidelines build in procedural safeguards before punishment is handed down. Students receive written notice, a 10-day window to respond alongside a parent or legal counsel, and 15 days within which to file an appeal.
Angara tied the policy directly to the risks such behavior creates. “Fake news, dangerous pranks, and bomb threats are never harmless — they disrupt learning and put others at risk,” he said.
The department’s reminder followed a scare at Bagong Silangan High School in Quezon City, where a bogus shooting alert moving through Messenger drove parents to rush to the campus to retrieve their children. Officers from the Quezon City police, who happened to already be at the school for a meeting with administrators, determined that the alarm stemmed from a loud noise at an adjacent construction site that pupils had mistaken for gunshots. School officials said an investigation into who originated the false messages is ongoing.
That episode landed at a tense moment for Philippine schools. On June 22, a shooting carried out by two students at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City left three students dead and 20 others injured — an attack that has since prompted separate inquiries in both houses of Congress.
