FACT CHECK: Sara Duterte did not mock honor students in relation to in-person classes

There is no record of Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Z. Duterte making a remark about honor students and their would-be performance in the face-to-face classes as the school year 2022-2023 kicked off on Monday, 22 August.

The viral post is fake.

Facebook user David Nyx Asher Wong posted a photo of Duterte with a quote card that reads:

“Yung mga honors dyan handa kana ba sa Lunes? Subukan natin sa F2F kung Honors ka talaga!” (Those with honors, are you ready for Monday? Let’s see in the F2F (face-to-face) if you will really get honors.)

According to a reverse image search on Google, the photo in the viral post was taken from a February 2021 Manila Times photo about Sara Duterte leading in a survey for President in the May 9, 2022 polls. https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/02/24/news/headlines/sara-leads-survey-for-president-vp/844707

The viral post appears to be intended as a meme, or a humorous text making fun of the performance of students online in relation to the face-to-face classes, which many schools across the country implemented at the start of school year 2022-2023 on Monday.

For two years since 2020, public and private pre-school to senior high schools conducted either online or modular classes with the onset of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The post has gathered at least 36,000 shares, 9,200 comments and 1,500 comments as of Monday, 22 August. 

Most of Duterte’s media pronouncements related to the school opening centered on the preparations and guidelines on the face-to-face classes.

In July, Duterte said that schools have been given different guidelines on how to conduct face-to-face classes. WATCH: DepEd Sec. Sara Duterte addresses mandatory in-person classes concerns | ANC

Duterte also commented on the absence of vaccination requirements for students and teachers. http://VP Duterte: Vaccination not a requirement for return to in-person classes | ANC

Nowhere in these interviews had Duterte mentioned about honor students and their school performance with the implementation of face-to-face classes. 

As with all our other reports, MindaNews welcomes leads or suggestions from the public to potential fact-check stories. (Yas D. Ocampo / MindaNews)

(This fact-check piece was produced with the support of Internews’ Philippine Fact-Checker Incubator Project.)