The scarcity of trained lawyers among those weighing Vice President Sara Duterte’s fate took center stage on the sixth day of her impeachment trial, when Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano counted Sen. Imee Marcos among the chamber’s law graduates — a description that clashes with what the University of the Philippines itself has said about her academic record.
Running through the roster of senator-judges with legal training, Cayetano named Francis Pangilinan, Chiz Escudero, Pia Cayetano, and Marcos, while noting that Bam Aquino remains a second-year law student. He said the shortage was slowing him down, particularly with the absence of Sen. Rodante Marcoleta.
“I will admit to you, nahihirapan po ako wala si Senator Marcoleta eh. Iilan lang po kaming abogado dito, si Senator Pangilinan, Chiz. Si Imee is a law graduate. Senator Pia. Bam is a second year law student and I’m encouraging him na tapusin niya tutal review na ‘yung nangyayari ngayon. But It’s not easy, 24 lang kami, nabawasan na ng tatlo,” he said.
His broader point concerned the credibility of whatever the court eventually decides. “Is there any question for this verdict—whether it’s for conviction or acquittal to be accepted by the Filipino people, we have to make sure that the integrity of the court is intact,” Cayetano said.
Marcos has long presented herself as a graduate of the UP College of Law. Her curriculum vitae filed during her years in the House of Representatives listed her as a cum laude of the college, and a Manila Bulletin article from May 1983 referred to her as one of the university’s honor graduates. In February 2019, she posted photographs online from what she described as her 1983 commencement at the Meralco Theater, an event she said her parents attended.
The university has rejected that account. Former UP executive vice president Teodoro Herbosa, responding to media inquiries, said registrar records show Marcos took non-degree courses at the College of Arts and Sciences before enrolling in the Bachelor of Laws program at the College of Law, which she attended but did not complete. “There is no record of her graduation from UPD nor any honors or academic distinctions received with the University Registrar’s office,” Herbosa said.
Rappler, VERA Files, and News5 have separately examined the cum laude claim and found it false. VERA Files reported that former College of Law dean Froilan Bacungan, in a 1986 book on the events surrounding the 1986 EDSA Revolution, described the ceremony Marcos attended as a “recognition ceremony” for students who had passed their coursework rather than a graduation, and characterized her participation as bordering on misrepresentation. Bacungan said Marcos was admitted to the college despite never submitting a certificate proving she held the bachelor’s degree required for entry, and that she was ultimately not conferred a law degree, which would have barred her from taking the bar examination.
The credentials dispute is not confined to UP. Rappler reported that Marcos also claimed a master’s degree from the Asian Institute of Management in a program the school’s registrar said it never offered, and Princeton University has stated she did not earn a degree there despite her assertions to the contrary. Confronted with the questions during the 2019 senatorial race, Marcos maintained she understood herself to have graduated and urged that the matter be set aside.
Cayetano’s tally reflected a bench thinned by absences. Two senator-judges, Jinggoy Estrada and Marcoleta, have been unable to sit because of separate legal cases, leaving the court short as it works through charges that include grave threats, misuse of confidential funds, unexplained wealth, and bribery. Conviction requires the votes of two-thirds of the 24-member chamber.
