Despite release of grad pix, UP shows no record of Imee Marcos as a graduate

• Amid reports of dubious degree, Imee Marcos offers ‘proof’ of UP Law graduation
• Despite grad pic: No record of Imee Marcos graduating from UP Diliman
• No record, yearbook entry for Imee Marcos’ graduation at UP

Senatorial candidate and Ilocos Norte governor Imee Marcos has posted photos of her graduation at the University of the Philippines, amidst rumors that she has dubiously obtained her degree.

The three photos posted on her official Facebook page said they were taken in 1983, during her “graduation from the University of the Philippines’ College of Law.”

“Gov. Imee Marcos attended her 1983 graduation from the University of the Philippines College of Law. The ceremonies were held at the Meralco Theater where her parents — former President Ferdinand E. Marcos and former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos — pinned her cum laude medal,” the caption read.

The University of the Philippines has already invalidated Marcos’ claims of graduating in an earlier report.

“The records kept by the University of the Philippines Diliman Registrar indicate that Ms Marcos took non-degree courses (courses without credit) in the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of the Philippines Diliman during academic year 1976-77. Thereafter she took courses under the Bachelor of Laws program at the UP College of Law from 1st semester 1979 to 2nd Semester 1983. There is no record of her graduation from UP [Diliman] nor any honors or academic distinctions received with the University Registrar’s office,” UP Executive Vice President Teodoro Herbosa said.

This is not the first time Marcos found herself in a controversy involving her academic records as her undergraduate studies at Princeton University was also questioned after a school spokesperson said she was never awarded a degree by the Ivy League school.

In 2015, her brother Bongbong Marcos also faced the same issue after he allegedly made false claims that he earned a degree from Oxford University, whereas he only got a “special diploma.”

Her posting of her graduation photos were further rebuked by a netizen who posted a copy of his 1983 UP Yearbook where the name of the daughter of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos was not listed in the College of Law section. She was not even found anywhere else of the Philippensian yearbook.

“Pathological liars disgust me. But there must be a special place in Dante’s Inferno for those who pretend to have graduated from my Alma mater, for whatever political mileage that may be gained,” wrote Angelo Bernardo Jr. in his Facebook post.

This was also echoed in a 2-year old Opinion article of Madrileña de la Cerna of Cebu Daily News where she recounted her story of graduating for her MA in Asian Studies in UP Diliman on June 18, 1983: “There was tension in the gym because of the rumors that the students (graduates and those attending) will stage a protest rally should Imee Marcos be included in the roster of graduates in the College of Law… It was a public knowledge during my stay in the campus that Imee could not graduate because she lacked 35 units. Many of her batchmates were my dormmates in the campus. In the first place, we learned that her admission to the college was questionable because she did not finish her undergraduate studies at Princeton but was admitted just the same with intense pressure on the administration (whose admission policies are very strict). Thanks to the very few good men and women at the UP College of Law led by the late Haydee Yorac, the integrity of the college remained intact by not letting her graduate.

However, a few days later, I was shocked to watch on TV the “graduation” of Imee Marcos as magna cum laude at the Meralco Theater with Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos putting on the hood and cap on Imee. I could not believe what I saw. The next day, the “graduation” picture was all over the front pages of the national newspapers.”

There may be two sides to every story, but Marcos remained questionable to both of them.