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Posts shared tens of thousands of times on social media claim that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has removed the nation's basic public education programme that offers 13 years of schooling. The claim is false; only the country's legislature can alter the programme and it has not taken any action. Multiple posts, shared for example here on Facebook on May 19, 2019, and here on Twitter on the same day, say Duterte has removed the programme, known as K-12. K-12 is shorthand for the Philippines' national education programme which mandates that the state must provide 13 years of schooling, from kindergarten to 12th grade, free to all children in the Philippines. The Facebook post, which has been shared more than 58,000 times, says: Confirmed. President Duterte removed k-12. Below is a screenshot of the post: Screenshot of Facebook post K-12 was established by a 2013 law, officially known as Republic Act No. 10533, published online here . A Republic Act is the official name for a law created by the legislature. According to this official government journal of the Philippines, a Republic Act can only be repealed by the legislature. The country's constitution says the legislature in the Philippines is composed of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. A check of the website of the House of Representatives showed that Rep. Sarah Elago filed a house resolution on May 9, 2019, urging Congress to review and remove the K-12 programme. The resolution however, is still pending and has not been approved. Below is a screenshot of the status of the resolution: Screenshot of status of resolution A review of Senate bills and resolutions showed that there were no proposed legislative measures seeking the repeal of K-12. The Philippine Department of Education issued this statement saying that only the legislative branch of the government can repeal the K-12 programme. The statement was also posted on their Facebook page here in a post embedded below: The statement says, in part: Sentiments and questions on social media pertaining to the supposed plan to scrap the K to 12 Basic Education Program are clearly based on misinformation and lack of critical discernment. It also says: It is also important to remind the public that the Department of Education’s (DepEd) implementation of the K to 12 Program is mandated by law, under Republic Act No. 10533, otherwise known as the 'Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.' Therefore, DepEd, as an executive arm of the government, cannot arbitrarily discontinue the Program. As with any law, the implementation, amendment, expansion, or repeal of the K to 12 Program is within the ambit of the legislative branch of the government comprised of the Senate of the Philippines and the House of Representatives.
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