The Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday, Feb. 15, confirmed that an investigation is currently ongoing related to a series of “insensitive and irrelevant” Valentine’s Day posts which appeared on its official social media accounts last week. 

“We would like to clarify that the horoscope post on the social media accounts of DepEd last Feb. 13 was never authorized nor cleared by appropriate authorities for public release,” DepEd Public Service Affairs Director June Arvin Gudoy confirmed this in a statement. 

On Saturday, a horoscope post predicting the Valentine’s Day fate of students based on their zodiac signs was posted on DepEd’s Facebook account. It came with a series of publication materials which showed horoscope predictions related to their love lives.

On Friday, Feb. 12, a post entitled “Bakit jowable si teacher?” was also posted on DepEd’s official page. The said post, which came with publication materials, enumerated the qualities of teachers which make them “jowable” or lovable for potential romantic relationships. 

The said posts drew mixed reactions from the netizens. While others found the posts witty and entertaining, some found these “irrelevant and insensitive” amid the challenges faced by students and teachers under the distance learning set-up due to the COVID-19 situation in the country. 

The two posts have been deleted on the social media accounts of DepEd as of this writing. “We consider the incident as a serious breach of protocol and a formal investigation is now ongoing,” Gudoy said. 

He added that DepEd’s the Public Affairs Service will “pursue appropriate actions against the person/s responsible for the unauthorized social media post.” 

In the meantime, Gudoy said that “admin accounts and access have been restricted and secured to protect the integrity of the official social media properties” of the DepEd until the investigation is done.