ISAT-U issues apology for controversial social media post

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

The Iloilo Science and Technology University (ISAT-U) issued an apology after a Facebook post from its Public Information Office was perceived as casting aspersions on West Visayas State University (WVSU) which is reeling from an alleged exam leakage issue.

On Saturday night, the ISAT-U Public Information Office posted a message encouraging rest and preparation for upcoming midterms, punctuated with the caption: “No cheating, no leakage! Importante pasar!”

The phrase “no leakage” struck a chord with the community, drawing a parallel to recent events at WVSU.

The controversial post was promptly deleted following negative feedback, and ISAT-U’s Public Information and Communications Office Director, Heinz Gumaquil, offered an apology in a radio broadcast on Sunday.

Gumaquil expressed regret over the incident, seeing it as a moment of reflection and an opportunity to improve their social media posting protocols.

“My apologies to everybody for causing this incident. This can be a learning instance also for all of us that we could straighten more our posting protocol so that next time around, maybe we could be a bit more circumspect in what we post on social media,” Gumaquil said.

He explained that they did not intend to refer to WVSU’s current controversy, saying that their timing may not have been good.

“[W]hen I validated the same from our information officers, they told me that it was not really meant to associate at anybody or to poke fun [towards] the misery of others. It was really more of advising and giving the usual thing that we do especially during examinations, but I told them that the timing was a bit off, especially that unpleasant words may have been added, so let us just take it down and just replace it with something more pleasant and inspiring,” he explained.