Fact check - gov't services/laws

FALSE: Duterte signs law to start school year at the end of August

Rappler.com

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FALSE: Duterte signs law to start school year at the end of August
Republic Act 11480 allows the president to start the school year later than August in the event of an emergency or calamity
Claim:

President Rodrigo Duterte has signed a law to move the start of the school year to the end of August. 

Facebook user Juvy Naquila Parilla posted a status on Monday, July 27, that claimed the President approved this law on Friday, July 24. 

The post read, “Republic Act 11480 State that Start of School must be Move up to End of August Already. Sign by President Duterte According to His Statement Last Friday.” 

The post has over 15,000 reactions and 40,000 shares, as of writing. Searching for the text of Parilla’s post on Facebook returns several posts by other users using the exact same copy.

This post was flagged as potentially false or misleading by Facebook’s fact checking tool Claim Check.

Rating: FALSE
The facts:

Republic Act 11480 allows the president to start the school year later than the last day of August in the event of an emergency or calamity.

This law amends Section 3 of Republic Act 7797, which requires classes to start no later than the last day of August. 

Republic Act 11480 adds to this, saying, “Provided, that in the event of a declaration of a state of emergency or state of calamity, the President, upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Education, may set a different date for the start of the school year in the country or parts thereof.”

This law covers grade schools and high schools, including foreign or international schools. The start of classes may be set nationwide or specific to parts of the country.

Duterte signed this law on Friday, July 17, not July 24, as stated in the post. 

Based on the post’s edit history, Parilla changed her original post to reflect this new claim. Her original post was another false claim wherein she said that no classes will be held in all levels for the school year 2020-2021. Rappler debunked her original post.

On July 16, Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones announced that DepEd stands firm on opening classes on August 24.

Senate committee head on basic education, arts, and culture Sherwin Gatchalian later announced that preparations to open the public school system on August 24 were “70% completed.” – Rianna Cruz/Rappler.com

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