Party-list solon wants to outlaw sale of documents from ‘Recto University’

“Recto University” will soon be shutting down if a lawmaker was to have her way.

A lawmaker wants to crack down on the thriving underground market for dissertations, theses, term papers and other school reports on Claro M. Recto Avenue in Manila.

Rep. Delphine Gan Lee of Agri party-list recently filed House Bill No. 3793 or the “Academic Honesty Act of 2013” to outlaw the practice of buying or selling academic papers to acquire college degrees.

“This bill seeks to make it unlawful for any person to sell, offer to sell, purchase or offer to purchase any material either written or provided through electronic media which will be submitted by a student as his or her own work to any university, college, academy, school or other educational institution, or to a course, seminar or degree program held by such institution,” Lee said in her explanatory note.

Based on the proposed bill, violators will face up to 30 days in prison and a maximum fine of P10,000. Under the current law, violators can be charged with falsification of private or public documents, a bailable offense that may lead to imprisonment of up to six years, depending on the mitigating circumstances of the crime.

“The nation’s human development program, especially our educational system, should, among other important foundations, be based and developed on the principle of honesty and hard work,” Lee said.

Since academic credentials were among the primary considerations for acceptance to a post or promotion in work, Lee said that it was important that these be “obtained only through the efforts of the person claiming it as his or her own, and not the work of people he or she just paid to write said materials.”

Recto Avenue is widely acknowledged as the main marketplace for ready-made or custom-made theses and dissertations along with other fake documents such as college diplomas, official documents and medical certificates.