Questions on Corona UST degree linked to impeachment

Chief Justice Renato Corona

Questions about the doctorate in law degree that the University of Santo Tomas conferred on Chief Justice Renato Corona last year “may be linked” to his impeachment trial in the Senate, Supreme Court administrator and spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez said Monday.

“It comes at the most interesting time. Maybe it’s all part of it,” Marquez said at a press briefing.

However, the court official declined to directly comment on the allegation that Corona earned his doctorate degree, summa cum laude, even without meeting UST’s requirements.

Academic freedom

“The UST has already spoken. I hope that puts to rest all the issues surrounding it,” Marquez said. “Let’s leave that to the age-old (educational) institution. It has already answered that and we have to respect the academic freedom of UST.”

On January 1, the Philippine Daily Inquirer ran a banner story, written by Marites Dañguilan Vitug of www.rappler.com, which said that Corona did not submit a dissertation. The story also claimed that he should not have qualified for honors because he overstayed as a doctoral student.

Reacting to Vitug’s story, UST said the university allowed Corona to submit a requirement equivalent to a dissertation—“a scholarly treatise on any subject related to his field, to be delivered in a public and eventually published.”

“He dutifully fulfilled these in 2010,” UST said. But the university did not answer Vitug’s claim that Corona overstayed in the doctoral program and should not have qualified for honors.

Reactions online

Whether UST broke its own rules in granting Corona his doctorate degree drew diverse reactions online.

On Twitter, user @tonyocruz believed it was UST’s prerogative: “…there’s no more debate about Corona’s doctorate. UST has academic freedom to grant it, in *any* legal manner it sees fit.”

User @bethangsioco tweeted: “I honestly think that CJ Corona’s Ph.D. wouldn’t have been ds big an issue if UST responded early enuf & if what it did is legit, walang isyu.”

User @anjo_david: “Ano’ng agenda ng rappler para kwestyunin ang Ph.D. ni Corona at ang UST? Makaka-apekto ba ito sa impeachment trial? #justthinking”

If anything, Vitug should be spared from criticism for putting this out in the open, according to Inquirer.net user Observer18: “If not for Ms Vitug’s article, we would not know that Corona did not write a dissertation, and his Ph.D. was given after UST bent its own rules… If it’s not for this report, UST would never reveal the truth that it afforded Corona a special treatment.”

Another user, Tonypogi, shared his opinion on the exchange of both parties: “If you read Ms. Vitug’s article and compare it to the reply of UST, you will see that all UST did was to cover its behind. What Miss Vitug alleges is that UST made a precedent in especially accommodating the Chief Justice. In so doing, the University broke its own tradition.”  With a report from Inquirer Research