3 in 5 schools still without security guards despite campus shootings

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education is asking the Senate for an additional P8.18 billion in its 2027 budget to hire security guards and install metal detectors and perimeter fences in public schools, following three deadly school shootings since June.

About 39% of DepEd schools have security guards as of October 11, according to the agency’s safe school environment audit, which it presented at a Senate budget hearing on October 16. That leaves roughly three in five schools without one. DepEd’s presentation did not say how many guards are currently deployed. 

Meanwhile, fewer than half of DepEd schools, or 48%, had active CCTV cameras, and about one in five lack a perimeter fence. Functional metal detectors are in 51% of schools, an improvement from June, when the detectors were only in 11% of schools, according to DepEd data. 

The proposed 2027 budget in its current version sets aside just P500 million for school security guards, enough to hire 1,667. Testifying before a Senate finance subcommittee last week, Education Secretary Sonny Angara said the agency was seeking money "for security guards, for metal detectors, for perimeter fences… which were not really included in the budget previously."

Of the P8.18 billion, DepEd is seeking P4.55 billion to hire 15,155 more guards, P2.13 billion for metal detectors and walk-through scanners, and P1.5 billion for perimeter fences, according to its presentation to the panel. 

DepEd's own figures put the cost of a guard at roughly P300,000 a year. At that rate, the request would fund about nine times as many guards as the budget bill currently covers.

Campus security has moved up DepEd's priorities after shootings at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City on June 22, at Ateneo de Zamboanga on August 18 and at Banga National High School in South Cotabato on September 18. 

DepEd has since issued Order No. 006, series of 2026, which tightens campus security and gadget control, sets proportional sanctions for students and simplifies how cases are reported and referred.

The request for additional funds for security and equipment is part of a P147.93-billion wish list that DepEd hopes to add to its 2027 allocation. 

Under the House-approved General Appropriations Bill, DepEd and its attached agencies would receive a total of P969.79 billion, which is P45.52 billion, or 4.48%, less than this year.

Angara, however, conceded that getting the full amount on its wishlist was "medyo suntok sa buwan (a bit of a long shot)."

Sen. Bam Aquino, chair of the Senate basic education committee who presided over DepEd's budget hearing on October 16, said senators shared the goal of bringing education spending back to 4% of gross domestic product, despite many "competing interests" for public funds. 

Angara noted that 4% is only the floor and that UNESCO recommends 4 to 6%.

DepEd had been caught off guard by the presence of "nihilistic violent groups" manipulating students, Angara admitted during the hearing. He said officials first learned about them only after the Tacloban shooting. "We didn't realize how wide they were, how organized they were," he said.

The DepEd chief also admitted the agency was unprepared for the aftermath as some of its personnel had not been trained to respond to campus violence of this scale. "After Tacloban alone, on the first day, there were 400 people who needed psychological first aid," Angara said.

Aquino urged DepEd to prioritize which schools need security equipment more than other smaller campuses. 

Aquino urged DepEd to identify which schools need security equipment most, rather than aim to cover every campus. Large schools clearly need CCTV, he said, but some schools outside city centers have perhaps 200 students. In those areas, “the need for a CCTV is not as much,” and a security guard may not be necessary, he said. 

The senator asked DepEd to list the specific schools that need CCTV, metal detectors, perimeter fences and guards, and to show how far it is from covering them, before the proposed 2027 budget reaches plenary debate.