Facebook page “Random post,” posted GMA News Online’s #WalangPasok graphics to claim that President Rodrigo Duterte cancelled classes and work on November 2 and that classes are to resume on November 6. However, the graphics is misleading as there has been no official announcements confirming the said claims by the page.
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“#UndasUpdate President Rodrigo “Roa” Duterte Cancelled Public Work and Classes On November 2,2017 Just To Respect The Request Of Pope Francis That All Catholics Must Have Their Time With There Late Love Ones And The Secretary Of Dep’Ed Rescheduled The Class On November 6,2017 Coz’ the Class Must Starts On The First Monday Of November,” the page wrote on October 30.
As of writing, the post has been reacted to 5,000 times, shared close to 40,000 times, and commented on over 2,000 times.
Some netizens even pointed out how fake the post is, with the grammatical errors being a huge red flag.
Others even suggested to have the page reported.
However, many of those who commented on the post seemed to believe it, even tagging some of their Facebook friends, further spreading the misleading ‘announcements.’
But in August 2016, the Malacañang released a list of declared regular holidays and special non-working days, a list which did not include November 2.
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A recent report by Interaksyon published on October 10, 2017 once again enumerated the holidays at the end of October to the middle of November for the ASEAN hosting. It said that October 31 and November 1 are set to be special non-working days and that there will be no classes for all levels in public and private schools in Metro Manila on November 16-17 for the ASEAN Summit. Still, there was no mention of a class suspension declared by Duterte on November 2.
According to the Department of Education’s 2017-2018 school calendar, classes are set to resume from semestral break on November 2, not November 6.
As of today, October 31, there has been no new changes to the declared holidays or special non-working days and the resumption of classes. November 2 is still not a declared non-working day and classes will resume on November 2, as scheduled by DepEd earlier, not November 6.
The fact alone that the Facebook page “Random Post” cited in its page description that it is “Just for Fun” should have been enough to alert people that its posts should not be taken seriously as they are. Further verification is necessary with claims from such pages.
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