Claim: ‘Dilawan’ (‘Yellows’) changed the DepEd school calendar
RATING: FALSE

 

A vlogger erroneously claimed on April 5 that the “dilawan,” the choice pejorative for supporters of the late former president Benigno Aquino Jr. and the opposition Liberal Party, were responsible for the change in the school calendar.

YouTuber Dante Maravillas falsely claimed that the change in the Department of Education’s (DepEd) calendar was driven by a desire to copy other countries. Maravillas was reacting to proposals to revert to the old calendar, in which the school year began in June instead of August.

The change in the DepEd school calendar, however, was ordered not by the “dilawan,” but by Leonor Magtolis Briones, the education secretary under the previous government, in May 2020.

DepEd Order No. 007 s. 2020 instructed public and private schools to move the opening of School Year 2020-2021 to August due to the implementation of Covid-19 lockdowns. 

According to the DepEd order, the adjustment of the school calendar was needed to ensure that health and safety precautions would be observed.

The video made by Maravillas, who has some 97,000 subscribers, has been viewed more than 11,000 times. Mariamne Yasmin Yap, Danielle Ellyma Bayani, Sofia Gabrielle Rosario, and Hannah Corinne Garzon

 

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