DepEd confirms receiving proposal to remove Marcos in ‘Diktadurang Marcos’

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday confirmed that there is a proposal to remove Marcos from “Diktadurang Marcos” (Marcos Dictatorship) in Grade 6 textbooks, which critics said was an “insult” to victims of human rights abuses during martial law.

“I confirm that indeed there was a letter that was sent to the Office of Undersecretary for Curriculum and Teaching. This was made by our Bureau of Curriculum Development (BCD) specialist. This was submitted to my office and forwarded to the Office of Undersecretary for Curriculum and Teaching,” DepEd Bureau of Curriculum Director Jocelyn Andaya said in an online press conference.

“Parte po ‘yun ng proseso namin (That’s part of our process), internal process, that our BCD specialists can freely express themselves and we respect their stand on curricular issues,” she added.

In a separate interview over TeleRadyo Serbisyo, Andaya clarified that it is not yet final, as the DepEd has not yet released a final order on it.

“Iterative process po siya. Final in the sense, na wala pang DepEd order and hindi pa na-release. When I say final, nai-release na po siya sa pamamagitan ng DepEd order. Wala pa po siyang ganoon,” said Andaya.

(It’s an iterative process. Final in the sense that there is no DepEd order and it has not been released. When I say final, it means it has been released by DepEd order. It doesn’t have that yet.)

She added that while the proposal is not yet formally implemented through a DepEd order, it remains open to change and clarification.

Andaya said the proposal was studied and validated by multiple layers of reviews, explaining that the proposal merely adjusted how “Diktadurang Marcos” is written as it is being represented by theme, and that any discussion specific to dictatorship and martial law will still include former president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s administration.

“The way that our Araling Panlipunan is structured, we did not tackle per presidential admin, but bawat tema (per theme), martial law and dictatorship are still discussed as part of the Marcos administration (Ferdinand Marcos Sr.),” said Andaya.

“Any discussion on dictatorship in the Philippines will inevitably fall on the discussion on President Ferdinand Marcos [Sr.] because no other president has implemented martial law, loss of democratic institutions, deterioration of the economy, ill-gotten wealth,” she added, partly in Filipino.

In the press conference, Andaya also denied that there was political pressure to remove Marcos in “Diktadurang Marcos.”

“Wala pong pressure na kahit na ano na binigay sa’min para tignan ulit ang curriculum, ito po ay isang proseso na aming pinapatupad dito sa aming curriculum o teaching strand, it is an academic discourse that we always observe and follow as we review and revise the curriculum,” she explained.

(There is no pressure on us whatsoever to review the curriculum. This is a process that we implement here in our curriculum or teaching strand; it is an academic discourse that we always observe and follow as we review and revise the curriculum.)

To recall, House Deputy Minority leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro on Sunday criticized the move to change “Diktadurang Marcos” (Marcos Dictatorship) to just “Diktadura” (Dictatorship) in Grade 6 Araling Panlipunan or Social Studies curriculum.

She called this a “clear revision of history and an insult to the countless victims of human rights abuses and atrocities committed during the martial law period.”

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