Is Manuel Pacquiao’s Bachelor of Science Degree a Fake?

[ASEAN NOW News]

Based on all the information available, unless Sen. Manuel Pacquiao and the University of Makati (UMak), that issued his degree can explain otherwise, it would seem that the Senator’s degree could be fake.

 

According to an article by Rigoberto Tiglao in the Manila Times, back in December 2019, Pacquiao was awarded by the UMak a Bachelor of Science degree in political science, after a year's study (not three months) at that institution.

 

UMak's president at the time was Abigail Binay, also Makati's mayor, after its longtime president Tomas Lopez died in February 2019.

 

 

UMak, apparently is not authorized to issue the kind of bachelor's degree that was given to Pacquiao.

 

Under existing laws on education, the only way to skirt the four-year course (four years, because it humanly takes that long to complete the 120 to 130 college units required) for a bachelor's degree is through the so-called Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program (ETEEAP).  

 

Help for Working Proffessionals 

 

 

Authorized by President Ramos through Executive Order 330 back in 1996, the ETEEAP allows working professionals who were not able to finish college education to earn a bachelor's degree without going through the traditional four-year course.

 

Under this program, professionals with five or more years of working experience can use the knowledge, experiences and achievements obtained through their jobs to earn the units required for the college degree related to their particular field of work.

 

Because of its obvious potential for abuse, given the proliferation of "diploma mills" in the past, the ETEEAP is strictly supervised by the Commission on Higher Education with the EO requiring a technical secretariat "of highly competent individuals with recognized expertise in alternative learning systems and educational assessment."

 

One of the most important features of the ETEEAP is that not just any university can issue degrees through the program.

 

For Pacquiao to boast of his "college degree" and for UMak for issuing it, is seen as an insult to the country’s educational system.

 

Should Pacquiao Resign?

 

Some people are suggesting that Pacquiao should resign immediately as senator if he cannot prove his degree is authentic, especially since as a legislator he had made an oath to defend the Constitution and follow the laws of the land.

 

If it cannot prove it didn't violate laws on issuing college degrees, the UMak, whose president is Makati Mayor Abigail Binay, should be closed by CHEd, and its vice president for academic affairs who claimed Pacquiao got a degree through should be removed.

 

Obviously, the boxing legend is admired around the world and across the Philippines, however, entering the political world is now becoming perhaps Pacquiao’s biggest challenge to date.