MANILA, Philippines — The camp of vice president-elect Sara Duterte-Carpio clarified that she has not released any statement about amending the K to 12 program, the reintroduction of a compulsory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) in the college curriculum and imposing a mandatory service period in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Her spokesperson, Liloan Mayor Christina Frasco, said they have received reports that a quote card has been circulating on social media falsely attributing to Duterte-Carpio a statement on those issues.
“Vice president-elect Sara Duterte has never released any statements to this effect. The quote card is fake,” Frasco added.
In a post circulating in social media, including Facebook, Duterte-Carpio was quoted as saying that she will move to add two more years in the current kindergarten to Grade 12 basic education program, or K to 12.
The post also claimed that she will push for compulsory ROTC in college plus two years of mandatory service in the AFP.
“After my proclamation as Vice-President and immediate assumption as Secretary of the Department of Education, I will immediately asked (sic) the Congress to amend the K12 program to K14 basic education program,” the quote card attributed to Duterte-Carpio and dated May 15, 2022, read.
“ROTC will be again compulsory plus two years mandatory service in the AFP without salary. Sa ikakaunlad ng bayan, disiplina ng kabataan ang kailangan (For the nation to progress, we need disciplined youth),” the quote card further read.
Frasco advised the public to follow Duterte-Carpio’s official social media pages, adding that their camp expects more “attempts to discredit” the vice president-elect.
“This is not the first, and we anticipate that this will not be the last of these nefarious attempts to discredit, attack, and attribute lies and conjectures against (her) as she transitions into the role of the Vice President and the Secretary of Education,” Frasco said.
“The public is enjoined to be circumspect against persons and groups who will no doubt continue to proliferate disinformation against Vice President-elect Sara Duterte in the coming months and years due to their own vested interests,” she added.
Just a few days after Duterte-Carpio accepted the nomination to be the next DepEd secretary, Frasco issued a statement clarifying that there were no discussions yet about imposing a mandatory ROTC program or a service period to the AFP.
The ROTC became an optional collegiate program in 2002, following the death of University of Santo Tomas student Mark Chua on March 18, 2001. Chua was allegedly killed by ROTC officers after he exposed the corruption and abuses in the university’s military training program.
Meanwhile, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said the resumption of face-to-face classes next academic school year would boost the recovery of the basic education sector from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the full resumption of in-person learning is a first step, Gatchalian maintained the need to implement a massive learning recovery program, noting that the lack of face-to-face classes for two years resulted in learning loss.
The National Economic and Development Authority has estimated that two years without face-to-face learning would result in P22 trillion in productivity losses. – Cecille Suerte Felipe