UE declares five-day suspension of classes after initial defiance

The University of the East (UE) declared on Friday a five-day suspension of classes in both its Manila and Caloocan campuses, after it earlier refused to suspend classes for a week-long “health break.”

The university said it made the suspension in light of Manila Mayor Isko Moreno’s declaration of a “health break” for students and teachers in both public and private schools in Manila from January 14 to 21, 2022.

“The UE community is hereby informed that classes in all levels, for UE Manila and UE Caloocan alike, for January 17, 2022, to January 21, 2022, are suspended,” the university said in an advisory on Friday.

Moreno earlier issued a show cause order after the UE’s news organization reported that UE president Ester Garcia defied the declaration of class suspension of the Manila City government.

“The University Management deemed it proper to defer making an announcement regarding the suspension of UE’s tertiary and graduate classes as these had not yet begun, along with internally discussing the inclusion of UE Caloocan classes and, moreover, the overall impact of the suspension on the academic calendar,” the UE said.

According to the university, Garcia’s reply to the show cause order has been emailed to the mayor’s office, while a hard copy will be sent to the City Hall by Monday.

It said college and graduate school classes for the second semester of SY 2021-2022 will resume on January 22, for those with Saturday classes.

Meanwhile, for college and graduate school students without Saturday classes, classes will resume on January 24.

Earlier, Moreno said the one-week health break would hopefully allow COVID-infected students and teachers, as well as parents, to recover from the disease.

Several cities including Manila, Marikina, Pasay, Parañaque, San Juan, Valenzuela, and Antipolo also suspended classes to allow students and teachers  a short break amid rising COVID-19 cases.

The government placed Metro Manila and around 50 other areas under Alert Level 3 from January 16 to 31 amid the rising COVID-19 cases.

On the other hand, the Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday recorded another record-high 39,004 fresh COVID-19 infections, bringing the country’s caseload to 3,168,379. —LBG, GMA News