Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 10) – Groups of educators condemned the planned changes of the Department of Education (DepEd) in its Grade 6 Araling Panlipunan curriculum, which they said would spread disinformation and historical distortion.

“The alteration of historical terminology is not only distortion but also undermines the truth about one of the darkest periods in Philippine history,” the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said on Sunday.

Following a directive from the DepEd Curriculum and Teaching Management Committee, the agency’s Bureau of Curriculum Development on Sept. 6 released a memorandum that would change the term “Diktadurang Marcos” to “Diktadura” in the Araling Panlipunan subject of the new MATATAG curriculum.

On Saturday, the Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND) described the revision as “a blatant example of disinformation, where the people are deliberately misled by manipulating historical facts.”