Moving away from blanket class cancellations, the Department of Education (DepEd) and partner agencies are finalizing a comprehensive Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) to establish operational guidelines for suspending and resuming classes under Executive Order (EO) No. 130, s. 2026 recently signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
Spearheaded by DepEd in collaboration with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the landmark directive aims to ensure safety while protecting vital instructional time.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara emphasized that EO 130 updates suspension rules by shifting to data-backed decisions, preventing unnecessary learning loss while keeping school communities safe.
“Under the leadership of President Bongbong Marcos, our approach to learner safety has evolved to precision-driven science. When disasters and environmental hazards strike, our decisions must be swift, clear, and firmly anchored on data from scientific agencies like PAGASA and PHIVOLCS,” Angara said.
Granular suspensions authorize school heads, in coordination with local disaster management offices and Schools Division Offices (SDOs), to address hyper-local risks like campus flooding, power failures, or security threats.
“We owe it to our children to keep them safe, but we must also curb learning loss by ensuring they return to class the moment conditions permit,” he stressed.
EO 130 establishes a national framework governing the suspension and resumption of in-person classes, activities, and onsite work across all educational institutions and learning centers. Amending EO 66 (s. 2012), the new directive rationalizes decision-making for natural and human-induced hazards, which include typhoons, torrential rains, storm surges, earthquakes, extreme heat, volcanic activities, hazardous air pollution, structural damage, and utility outages.
To implement EO 130 effectively, the upcoming JMC sets the operational guidelines and technical thresholds governing three distinct mechanisms for class suspensions and resumptions.
Automatic suspensions are triggered immediately when official advisories from scientific agencies reach predefined technical thresholds. In-person classes automatically resume once advisories expire or are lifted, and required safety assessments are cleared.
Localized suspensions are declared by local chief executives (LCEs) for local risks. Under EO 130, LCEs are mandated to make localized suspensions as specific and targeted as possible, specifying precise geographic boundaries down to specific barangays or school zones rather than issuing citywide or municipal blanket cancellations whenever feasible.
LCEs must also observe standard announcement timeframes. Localized resumptions take effect as soon as local warnings expire and safety inspection clearances are granted.
Granular suspensions authorize school heads, in coordination with local disaster management offices and Schools Division Offices (SDOs), to address hyper-local risks like campus flooding, power failures, or security threats.
EO 130 introduces granular resumptions allowing individual schools that are verified as safe and structurally sound to resume face-to-face classes upon documented site-specific assessments and LCE concurrence, even if a broader municipal or city-wide suspension remains active.
To ensure learning continuity during physical school closures, EO 130 mandates the immediate activation of alternative delivery modalities, such as modular instruction, online learning, take-home activity packets, or temporary learning spaces.
