The Department of Justice said Saturday that it will prosecute those making false claims of errors in the modules of the Department of Education (DepEd).
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra made the warning after DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones asked the DoJ for help to run after these persons.
“We will be ready to help if there is evidence tending to show the false and malicious character of these allegations about the agency’s learning modules,” Guevarra assured.
The Justice Secretary pointed out the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) may be tapped to conduct the investigation since, he said, “the NBI is the investigating arm of the DoJ.”
In the meantime, Guevarra said, “the DoJ has not received any request for assistance from the DepEd.”
He said the charges that could be filed will “depend on the actual facts in each case.”
“For example, if the false claim about a module is directly attributed to a certain person with no manifest intent but to ridicule or malign him or her, the latter may have cause to file a complaint for libel or cyberlibel, as the case may be,” he explained.
During the “Laging Handa” briefing last Friday, Briones said she wants the DoJ’s help in going after those who make false claims against the agency, particularly, on the purported errors found in modules that are being used by students under the distance learning set-up.
Briones said the DepEd has been conducting investigations over the issues.
“We have established that in certain instances, there are erroneous modules that are not ours but are attributed to us – they even use the seal of DepEd,” she said.
DepEd Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction Diosdado San Antonio also stated that the agency could not be blamed for all the “errors found in learning modules,” especially those that have gone viral online.
San Antonio said that DepEd has been strengthening the review process by “assigning more people” to check the learning materials.
He added that the DepEd will also be tapping third-party evaluators to spot the mistakes and correct the errors.