Senator ‘strongly urges’ DepEd to suspend graduation rites amid COVID-19 threat

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian “strongly urges” the Department of Education (DepEd) to suspend graduation rites due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

“I strongly urge the DepEd to suspend graduation in high school, moving up activities in junior high school. Next week puro daycare graduation na [a lot of daycare graduation will be held],” Gatchalian, chair of the Senate basic education committee, told reporters in an interview on Monday.

He said suspending these activities would help prevent possible transmission.

“Alam naman natin kapag graduation yung mga magulang from abroad bumabalik talaga for that graduation. So we’re talking about close to three million students graduation in senior high school,” he said.

[We all know that, when it comes to graduation, a lot of parents who are working abroad come home. So we’re talking about close to three million students graduation in senior high school.]

“Suspend na muna natin para maiwasan natin yung transmission and also maiwasan natin din yung pagbalik din ng iba na galing abroad. So we’re minimizing movement. In three days, buong bansa may graduation, ang daming mga movement niyan and we have to minimize that,” he added.

[Let’s suspend it for the meantime to prevent transmission and to avoid arrivals coming abroad. So we’re minimizing movement. In three days, the whole country will hold graduation, so a lot of movement is involved so we have to minimize that.]

As of this writing, the Philippines has recorded 24 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Earlier on Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte already declared a state of public health emergency following the recommendation of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.

/atm