Degree

"It’s a character issue, they say. "

Did Imee Marcos finish college at Princeton?  And law at the University of the Philippines?

She has been governor of Ilocos Norte, congresswoman of the same province for years and years, decades even.

But now she is running for senator, and under the harsh light of media’s attention, the question of her academic degrees is front-page news.

Now let me tell you a real story:

In the summer of 1981, in Boston, I casually asked then-exile Ninoy Aquino what degree he finished.  Frankly I did not know much at the time about the outspoken senator who was imprisoned by his Upsilon fraternity brod Ferdinand E. Marcos, right at the beginning of martial rule.

His reply: “I didn’t graduate with a college degree.”

“In fact, ang dami kong iskwelahan na pinasok.  Elementary sa La Salle, but eventually finished it at St. Joseph’s in New Manila.  Then San Beda for high school.  I went to Ateneo de Manila for an AB degree, but didn’t get to finish it,” Ninoy matter-of-factly stated.  

“At 17, I went to Korea with the PEFTOK [Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea] contingent, as a young journalist, a war correspondent of the Manila Times,” he continued.

“Yes, I read about that. Sumikat ka nga doon,” I chimed in.

“Binigyan ako ni Presidente Quirino ng Legion of Honor because of that, when I was just 18,” Aquino beamed.

“I took up law courses at the UP, but not for a degree,” he added.

“Ako kasi Lito, ‘pag sa tingin ko enough na yung alam ko, hindi yung diploma ang importante,” Ninoy explained.

“Sa UP ko naging brod si Macoy…Upsilon, si Doy Laurel nagpasok sa akin. Doy and I are like brothers; nagsama ang papa at si Presidente Jose Laurel nung panahon ng Hapon.  Sabay kaming feeling ostracized after the war, when our fathers were imprisoned, and labelled collaborators,” he continued.

The eminent statesman and long-time labor secretary, Blas Fajardo Ople of Hagonoy, Bulacan, though graduating as valedictorian of his grade school class at the Hagonoy Elementary School, was not known to have finished a college degree, although he enrolled in Quezon College in Manila after the Second World War. Even his high school studies were interrupted, and a teenage Ople fought with the guerilla movement against the Japanese.

But Ople was a journalist par excellence, whose mastery of both Tagalog and the English language was way above everyone else’s wave length.  After his long stint in the labor department where he presided over the beginnings of the OFW phenomenon, Ople became a senator, a foreign affairs secretary, and Senate President.

Senatorial candidate Chel Diokno’s famous nationalist father, Jose Wright Diokno, graduated as valedictorian at De La Salle, and finished business administration with summa cum laude honors at the age of 17.  He had to secure a special dispensation to take the CPA board exams because of his youth.  Not only did he pass, he topped.

Thereafter, he enrolled at the University of Sto. Tomas to pursue a law degree.  But World War II erupted and schooling was interrupted.  He pursued his education by reading his father’s law books.  After the war, the Supreme Court granted the young Diokno a special dispensation to take the bar examinations despite never having completed a law degree.

Jose W. Diokno is perhaps the only Filipino who has topped both the CPA and the bar exams.  He became a topnotch law practitioner like his father, and was appointed Secretary of Justice by President Diosdado Macapagal.  Later, after disagreement with his president on the handling of the celebrated Harry Stonehill bribery scandal, he resigned.  Running a year later for senator under the banner of the opposition Nacionalista Party, he won resoundingly, and was one of the best senators of the realm until martial law put him behind bars along with Ninoy Aquino.

Indeed, it is not the number of academic degrees that one has that really Lito Lapid, who is rating very high in the surveys, thanks to Coco Martin’s never-ending “Ang Probinsyano,” is not one to deny his lack of academic credentials. In all humility, he does not hide that fact when confronted that he does not possess any degree.

Of course, Otso Diretso and many others will continue to hound Ferdinand Marcos’ daughter on this issue of alleged “fake” academic degrees until May 11. It is a character issue, they will remind voters.

 And just as I was finishing this article, I read a report about a NEDA official saying over a radio interview that NFA rice was being bought by people for other reasons than personal consumption.  Queried further, she supposedly said, “pinapakain sa aso.”

This brought a pained reaction from the NFA administrator for its insensitivity. “Mata-pobre” was the descriptive used.

When I was administrator of NFA, I noticed that my staff would cook high-quality rice in a rice cooker for our lunch, instead of just buying rice from the canteen where we bought our meals.  

Forthwith, I asked that we be served NFA rice. “Kung kaya nating ibenta sa tao, dapat tayo mismo, kakain nito.”