By Atty. Howie Calleja
It seems that there is no end to what Bongbong Marcos or better yet Marcos Jr. can attempt to claim as his birthright: the Vice-Presidency, the “accomplishments” of his dictator father, and Sandiganbayan Convicted mother and now – a degree. For a man who spent 6 years in the Senate but is not the principal author of one worthy piece of legislation, it seems he spends the vast majority of his time claiming ownership over what was never his. What else would we expect from the eldest son of a man whose entire Presidency reeked of a belief of a divine right to a throne?
For years, Marcos, Jr. has claimed (in interviews, and even on the official Senate page) that he was conferred a Bachelor’s Degree by the prestigious Oxford University in England, and has misrepresented his actual status as “special degree” holder numerous times. But, as clarified by Oxford in 2015, and again by Oxford Philippines Society, he was unable to complete a Bachelor’s Degree. While reports have shown that he couldn’t even make it through the first exams, Marcos jr himself has misrepresented his status as an alumnus on record, multiple times. Even to this day, the Marcos jr camp still tries to change the narrative, claiming that he has “always been forthright” on receiving a special diploma, instead of an actual degree. Shouldn’t they also be forthright in the fact that his failure in his first year included receiving failed marks in economics and politics? How can you run a country while failing those two major subjects?
While this situation is certainly not a laughing matter, Marcos Jr. is comical in that he has to explain his degree and graduation. For the rest of us, if you graduate – you graduate, period. There is usually no need to explain or give disclaimers. You even proudly show your graduation picture and not post a freshman class picture some of which including Marcos jr didn’t finish with the rest of the class. For instance, I finished my Bachelor of Science degree and my Juris Doctor degree at the University of Sto. Tomas and Ateneo Law respectively, and there is no need to explain. Anyone can look and check, it is the same with my Certificate in International Law in The Hague, Netherlands and Master’s of Law Degree in Duke University North Carolina, USA: no explanation needed with Diploma and complete valid transcripts to show to anyone who tries to question these facts. But it seems that truthful graduation, with a diploma and proper transcripts in tow, is too much of an ask for someone running for President. In the case of Marcos Jr., the explanations given only show vagueness and the presence of inaccurate and untruthful statements.
Why does this matter today? While qualifications for President don’t include “college graduate”, shouldn’t we at least look for honesty and integrity. Though it does not matter where a leader graduates from, indeed this is not an issue of whether or not one graduated rather what is important is truthfulness and accountability – if there is none found in Marcos Jr., then there is no ability to lead. While no one should care about what school a leader graduated from, we should care about their integrity in the “small things” as this is the attitude they will bring to all things, big or small. When Marcos jr failed in Oxford that is his doing, but, when he failed to tell his educational qualifications accurately and truthfully, he failed the Filipino people.
The narrative has now become “the sins of the father should not pass to the sins of the son”, but he was entirely complicit and even continues to show no remorse on his father’s presidency. In fact, he claims his “accomplishments” and glorifies his father at every chance. How can one say the sins do not pass down but, in the same breath, say the accomplishments do? The hypocrisy is baffling. Instead of making jokes about the ridiculousness of the situation, let’s hold our politicians to a higher standard. The real question is not whether he graduated or not, that is of little significance; the real issue here is if you can lie in such a small matter, the more you can lie to your people about bigger issues. It is the tendency to lie and cheat and get away with it. That is the real legacy of Marcos the dictator, and that is still continued by his son.
Certainly, Ferdinand Marcos was not a stupid man. In fact, he is described to be an intelligent lawyer and a cunning politician, how else could he have fooled the Filipinos out of hundreds of billions of pesos while torturing many during Martial Law? In poor contrast to his father, Marcos jr poor academic record must have been an obstacle for Marcos’ machinery to overcome, after all, he was set up to be his father’s successor. At 21, he was sworn in as “Special Assistant to the President”, was Governor of his home province, and, of course, was appointed by his father to the Chairman position of the Philippine Communications Satellite Corporation (Philcomsat).
Of course, his failure to pass even his first-year examinations does not give off any semblance of a future leader, so the Marcos camp did in 1978, until today, what they do best: lie. As Imelda Marcos said in the recent viral documentary “The Kingmaker”: “perception is real, and the truth is not”. All they needed was the appearance that Marcos jr was intelligent, they did not believe the country needed an actual intelligent leader – that, to them, is enough. Imagine being told from birth that the Philippines was yours to lead (i.e. conquer), is it no wonder that Marcos jr entire life reeks of a sense of entitlement and a belief in a “birthright” to Malacañang?
The vast majority of us hardworking Filipinos know that nothing is handed to us. We have to make our way in this world and cannot rely on a “birthright”, but it seems that someone who aims to represent us does not share this view. How could Marcos jr claim that he is in the best position to be our next President when he claims accomplishments that are not his? Again, the question we should ask does not do he deserves to be voted as President, but rather why does he believe the Philippine people deserve this disservice of an incompetent leadership?
Perhaps Marcos jr or BBM should now stand for “Baby Boy Marcos” because he certainly whines enough.
