A video on Facebook (FB) is claiming that Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio has unveiled several directives to remove all information deemed “anti-Marcos” in public school textbooks and revise content taught about the period of martial law. This needs context.
The narrator in the 10-minute-long video, published on Sept. 21, claimed that the Department of Education (DepEd) has officially released six directives aiming to “correct lies” taught to children about martial law history by revising school books.
Duterte-Carpio herself has denied such plans. However, the department drew attention last month over a controversial memorandum that gave orders to change “Diktadurang Marcos” (Marcos dictatorship) to “Diktadura” (dictatorship) in the curriculum of one of the grade levels in basic education.
VP on removing anti-Marcos content in schools
In a statement last year responding to public outcry on the possible rebranding of the Marcoses’ family name, Duterte-Carpio has denied such plans and said DepEd has no time for historical revisionism. She also chided “anti-Marcos groups” for reacting over unfounded concerns.
“DepEd is not in the business of erasing these [Martial Law] facts and replacing them with something else,” Duterte further said in the statement.
Separating the name of ‘Marcos’ from the dictatorship
In September, however, DepEd Bureau of Curriculum and Teaching director Joyce Andaya confirmed in an online press conference the existence of a controversial memo dated Sept. 6 ordering to detach the name of “Marcos” from the word “dictatorship” in the Grade 6 Araling Panlipunan curriculum.
Andaya dismissed accusations of whitewashing martial law history, and said the name of Marcos Sr. cannot be ignored when discussing martial law in classrooms.
“Hindi maaring hindi banggaitin ang pangalang Ferdinand Marcos Sr. sa pagtalakay ng paksa ukol sa diktadura,” she said.
The DepEd director further explained that the memo will go through a vetting process and is not final, as the revised K-10 curriculum for this year is still under review. The approved curriculum will be released by the department to the public.
The untrue video emerged over a week after Duterte and Hontiveros’ word war over the controversial P500 million and P150 million confidential funds requested for the Office of the Vice President and DepEd this year, respectively.
FB page Apple Cuthbert (created on Aug. 1) published the false video that garnered over 2,900 reactions, 650 comments, 480 shares and 40,000 views.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
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