Inside Philippine politics & beyond

Imee Marcos had no Princeton degree when she entered UP Law, dean said

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Dean Froilan Bacungan explained why he allowed Imee to enroll but not graduate

See for yourself: Imee Marcos is NOT in UP’s 1983 official yearbook of graduates

My thanks to all those who leaked the documents to me

By Raïssa Robles

I always knew that Imee Marcos, daughter of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, never graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Law.

I heard this directly from the UP law professors who had her as a student or were teaching there at that time.

I heard this directly from my father, the late Prof. Jose F. Espinosa, who became UP Law evening dean and who was one of Imee Marcos’ professors and, briefly, her tutor.

I heard this directly from Professors Ed Labitag, Carmelo Sison, Myrna Feliciano, Haydee Yorac, and even from UP law dean Irene Cortes (my godmother in my confirmation).

I was told that because Imee did not fulfill all the requirements for graduating from UP Law, they held graduation ceremonies just for her and her parents.

At that time, though, I had attributed her not finishing and graduating to her pregnancy.

I remember that she was heavy with child when she and I had tutorial lessons inside my father’s office in the UP College of Law. The tutorials were about the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, which my father was teaching then at the University of Santo Tomas. (Among his students before were Fr. Sonny Ramirez, former Senator Francisco Tatad and Jullie Yap-Daza.)

Imee would enter the room wearing a caftan or a long peasant dress. Her bodyguards never entered the room but stayed discreetly outside.

After a few sessions, she disappeared.

Later, she sent my dad a big box of chocolate-covered Macadamia Nuts from Hawaii, where she had given birth to her first son, Borgy.

Looking at Fernando Martin “Borgy” Manotoc’s date of birth, he was born on April 9, 1983.

Graduations in UP usually take place around that time. So I wonder if Imee’s “graduation” took place before or after she gave birth.

As proof of her “graduation”, Imee’s official Facebook page recently posted photos of a ceremony that took place in Meralco Theater, but did not say WHEN it took place.

Posted by Imee Marcos on Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Posted by Imee Marcos on Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Posted by Imee Marcos on Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Her classmates, who included International Criminal Court Judge Raul Pangalangan, UP President Danny Concepcion, lawyers Sigfrid Fortun and JV Bautista, would know. One of Imee’s classmates is dead. His name was William Chua. He later joined Prof. Yorac in defending human rights victims.

Imee also claimed to have graduated “with honors” from UP Law – as a cum laude graduate.

If she did graduate cum laude, it is highly unusual to note that she did not say she was a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, to which all honor graduates become members after paying a small joining fee. She could have easily become a member since she had claimed to have graduated with honors from two universities – from UP Law and from Princeton University, where she majored in Religion and Politics.

UP Diliman executive vice-president Teodoro Herbosa recently said there is no proof in the UP records that she ever graduated. Herbosa said Imee took non-degree courses (meaning, she sat in classes without having to take any tests or fulfill any course requirements ) from 1976 to 1977 at the College of Arts and Sciences in UP Diliman.

Later, she enrolled at the UP College of Law from 1979 to 1983.

At the time of her enrollment in UP Law, the law dean was Prof. Froilan Bacungan. He is now dead but in 1986, he was interviewed by German journalist Marilies von Brevern (whom I had met and had dinner with several times in the mid-1980s).

Marilies went around with this huge tape recorder talking to various personalities. Among those she interviewed was former UP law dean Bacungan, who was by then a Commission on Elections commissioner. Marilies can be formidable and she asked Dean Bacungan the right questions. She was able to ask him about Imee Marcos – probably the first ever to ask him about it and get a very frank answer.

Bacungan told Marilies:

But while I have good personal feelings for Marcos, he never asked me to do anything wrong. It’s very difficult to justify something illegal. As long as there is a legal basis, I am one who is not likely to go out of my way to make corrections. You know, there was this problem with Imee, the President’s eldest daughter. I allowed her to enter the College of Law, in spite of the fact that she couldn’t present a certificate proving that she had a bachelor’s degree which was the basic requirement. “I don’t have it now,” she explained. “Our classes here start in June and American universities end in June.” Four years afterwards, when she could be considered for graduation, we discovered that she never submitted her diploma. She was not given a bachelor of law degree and that meant that she couldn’t take the bar examination . . . .

To read the rest, please look at the PDF below, an excerpt from Marilies’ book, The Turning Point:
Twenty-six accounts of February events in the Philippines:

In addition, Imee Marcos’ photo is nowhere to be found in the list of law graduates in the 1983 edition of Philippinensian – the yearbook of UP graduates.

See for yourself below.

Among the most important qualifications for a senator is HONESTY.

Not brilliance, not good looks, but plain and simple HONESTY.

Why did Imee Marcos lie to her supporters, friends and the Filipino people FOR 36 YEARS that she had graduated from the UP College of Law when she did not?

If she can lie about THAT, what else has she been lying about?

She can still prove she told the truth by ordering UP Diliman to release her FULL TRANSCRIPT OF RECORDS for all the years she studied in UP.

Comments

  1. Any one can read The Concession Agreement – ‘agreement’ dated 21 Feb. 2997. I do not know who drafted this or here this ‘agreement’ was copied from. Sixty (60) pages PLUS is the length.

    Worst, acc to Article 10 the ‘penalties’ for any concessionaire failing its obligations to provide enough water supply is like MOUTH with NO TEETH. All LIPS only. It speaks more about MONEY here and MONEY there. Thus, the question: Who drafted this? Or from where did this ‘agreement’ come from?

    Thus, this contract is more like ‘a concession’ on water users to CONCEDE to whatever the MWSS and Concessionaires can do NOT to fulfill their obligations to provide ENOUGH REGULAR GOOD WATER. And this what is happening now.

    No need to review this agreement. It should be CHANGED! My guess is this agreement was COPIED most probably from a USA source, full of very favorable provisions to companies as concessionaires of water supplying and NOTHING to water users complaints.

    http://ro.mwss.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/CA-MWCI.pdf

    • And BTW, to read THE CONCESSION AGREEMENT, be prepared to have a PITCHER full of water when reader becomes THIRSTY at Page 25 before the finish line.

      he he

      • Let readers go to ‘TAP SECRETS’ the Manila Water Story. . . Virgilio C. Rivera, Jr.

        . . . In 1997, Manila Water inherited from MWSS taking over the water and sewerage operations, the aging waer distribution system. Manila Water was baffled many. Capital invested $1 Billion

        . . . to replace kilometers of pipes. Manila Water in its dream: by making sure that CLEAN and SAFE water flows with a turn of a tap

        . . . tap! tap! and tap! Poof! End of a dream. No water.

        . . . Water for Metro Manila’s 15 millions users comes from Angat and the Ipo dams. MWSS adminstered 258 deep wells, with only 113 being operational. [ Note: Was this in 1997? ]

        As reported in this ARTICLE, only 10% of the whole service aread has an average of 16 hours per day water supply [ include both served and unserved households] have water supply. MWSS did not cover 35%.

        At that time in 1997, ‘ the
        MWSS was unable to cope with the demand for efficient and quality supply of water. Faced with rapid growth and urbanization, MWSS was confronted with a major challenge: how to provide clean drinking water to the growing population of
        Metro Manila. ‘         [ Article]

        This Article, as reporting, said of MWSS was into ‘Nepotism’ a factor, other than others, that contributed to the ‘bloated employment figure’. MWSS had about 15,000 employees, an overstaffing, a cause for poor performance. Even MWSS headquarters was poor and deteriorating at the time, broken down elevators, defective air-conditioning, LEAKING ROOFS, POORLY MAINTAINED TOILETS found also in branch offices. In short, low productivity by MWSS.

        Came THE WATER CRISIS. Came Pres. Fidel Ramos seeing the impending water crisis. Shift to PPP under his Administration. PPP and the National Water Crisis Act (NWCA) came in. Pres. Aquino broadened the PPP program. Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) law was born. Pres. Ramos saw that if the LOOMING WATER CRISIS in Metro Manila was not addressed, the whole economic sustainability of the country would be at risk. Needed was a dynamic and solid infrastructure to support water service as without it, it would be impossible to sustain any economic gain.

        From so many events thereafter, came THE CONCESSION AGREEMENT. Manila Water for the East Zone, Ayala-led Manila Water Company, Inc., and Maynilad Water Services, Inc. for the West Zone.

        Under this AGREEMEN, gov’t (MWSS) remains the OWNER of the water utility, assets/additional assets which concessionaires got into investing. Concessionaires are AGENTS and OPERATORS of the MWSS.

        Today, yesterday and the other days lately, NO WATER. Water supply is also INTERRUPTED. Many have no water supply. What happened?

        From the looks of this water crisis now, nobody really knows. Not MWSS. Not Manila Water Co., Inc. This water crisis started way back in 1997. It still appears its still here and around. What then?

        Well, for some water dry. For some water slow. For some, no water at all. Crisis: dry, slow and none.

        Solution(s)? Palace calls. Conference held. But where is the water? Congress investigates. It cannot point the fault because MWSS and concessionaire finger-pointing at each other. What results? Nothing yet clear.

        Warning: No Water will be No Electricity. No Electricity No Businesses. What follows will be a Chain reactions: Nobody Moves. Everyone Stand or Sit Still. Dig! Dig! Dig! Find! Find! Find! What? the WATER!

        No water, do people live? No, people in slow deaths. God created the heavens. HE created the waters too. HE separated the lands and the waters. There is WATER! Its there in front of every one’s nose. Why HIDE the waters? For what? As an issue of what? Elections? Or just to make a misery to the user-people? Evil.

        How is evil punished? Is it in the Agreement? Nada! No, it is not. So, provide an effective punishment to evil that does hide water and/or refuses to supply water. What was done way back in 1997 on Water Crisis is running into naught now. The gates of Hell-dry is open to welcome the dried deaded corpses and animals. Some are laughing into this crisis. The majority are not.

        W A T E R !

        • finger pointing, better to chop off their fingers then, so no more finger pointing, he, he, he.

          no accountability, no responsibility of highly educated men and women tasked with managing the water, their job description blurry, heir bums made fat by extra generous salaries.

          better pa yong 12 yrs old, may alam na rin yon, sabi ni pakyaw at pwede ng makulong sa mga pagkakamaling nagawa, may pananagutan ang 12yrs old. habang yong mga water bosses na may mga edad na, matagal na sa trabaho at may lifelong experiences pa of wheeling and dealing water, aba! finger pointing lang ang best problem solver nila. pwe!

          chop their fingers off, that should stop the finger pointing! else cut off their lying tongues, he, he, he. they should all aim to be better than 12 yrs old, nobler and not lower.