From his age to the zillions of assets that his family owns, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has been accused of lying; more so now that he is running for president.
Many of the issues, such as his academic record, keep coming back because he continues to live a lie despite evidence proving the falsehood of his claims. He does not own up to his mistakes. Humility seems inexistent in his vocabulary.
On Sept. 14, the former senator posted on his Facebook page: “Ako po ay nagpapasalamat sa lahat ng inyong pagbati sa aking 46th birthday! Sobra pong nakakataba ng puso.”
A reader, who has apparently grown tired of the falsehoods from the Marcoses, requested VERA Files to verify the post.
Records show that Marcos Jr. was born on Sept. 13, 1957. He turned 64, not 46 as he claimed in the post, which did not have any indication that it was a joke. His own website said he has been in public service for 40 years, serving as senator, congressman, governor and vice governor. It also indicated that Marcos became vice governor of Ilocos Norte in 1981 at age 23.
However, researchers at the Third World Studies Center, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy in the University of the Philippines Diliman found that Marcos Jr. ran uncontested and became vice governor of Ilocos Norte after the Jan. 30, 1980 elections while still a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was then 22. Then he became governor in 1983 when his aunt, Elizabeth Marcos Rocha, resigned for health reasons after holding the post for 16 years since 1967.
Much has been written about inaccuracies in Marcos Jr.’s academic record, specifically his claim of having obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oxford University. Documents have come out that what he actually got from Oxford was a special diploma, courtesy of Philippine diplomats who worked for it to save the young Marcos from failing.
The team of UP researchers — Joel Ariate Jr., Miguel Paolo Reyes and Larah Vinda Del Mundo — found that the lies about Marcos Jr.’s academic achievements began as early as 1978 when his father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., mentioned in his address before graduating students of the Philippine College of Commerce (now Polytechnic University of the Philippines) that his only son was “still a senior at Oxford.”
“He is graduating this June,” the then-president said. “He is so busy he could not stay here, he came here and stayed only two days and said: ‘I better go back to Oxford, Father, at ngayon ay naghahanda kami sa final examinations ng June.'”
Examining the documents that they secured as part of an ongoing research program, the Marcos Regime Research, the researchers found Marcos Sr.’s statement to be untrue.
Marcos Jr. was then preparing not for a college degree in which he had a senior standing but for a “special diploma in social studies.”
Just last week, a press release from the Marcos camp twisted a statement of James Jimenez, spokesperson for the Commission on Elections, and made it appear that the petition filed by some civic leaders to cancel the candidacy of the former senator on Nov. 2 has “no clear basis.”
Jimenez indeed uttered the phrase “no clear basis” in an interview with a television reporter, but it was not referring to the petition that was filed hours later. Jimenez said the press release was “misleading” and that his statement was “not intended, in any way, as a comment” on the petition filed six hours after he was interviewed.
The Marcos press release also falsely described the petition as a disqualification case when, in fact, it was a petition to cancel or deny the former senator’s certificate of candidacy for president for “false material representation” over his failure to disclose his conviction in 1995 for nonpayment of income tax from 1982 to 1985.
Admittedly, Marcos has gained many supporters, giving him a high chance of clinching the presidency in the 2022 elections. Unfortunately, a significant number of these supporters refuse to check the documents that are publicly available and accessible to be able to examine and discern the inaccuracies in the claims and disinformation that they are made to believe. They easily dismiss this as part of black propaganda against the Marcoses.
Marcos Jr. may have gotten away with the many lies about himself in the past elections that he won. This time that he is seeking the country’s No. 1 post, he must go through the proverbial eye of a needle. Voters should no longer allow him to live a lie.
If he can lie about his age, how much he is worth and his educational achievements, how can we entrust him the awesome powers of the presidency and with the trillion pesos of annual budgets that he can abuse and misuse? The 2022 election is not just about redeeming the Marcos family name. Trust and honesty are major issues to consider.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
This column also appeared in The Manila Times.