{"id":99042,"date":"2017-04-19T05:42:51","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T09:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=99042"},"modified":"2017-04-19T05:42:51","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T09:42:51","slug":"escudero-denies-hand-in-up-bors-decision-to-confer-honorary-degree-to-pres-duterte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/04\/19\/escudero-denies-hand-in-up-bors-decision-to-confer-honorary-degree-to-pres-duterte\/","title":{"rendered":"Escudero denies hand in UP BOR’s decision to confer honorary degree to Pres. Duterte"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sen.<\/a>
Sen. Francis Escudero on Wednesday said that he did not move to have the University of the Philippines (UP) offer Pres. Rodrigo Duterte an honorary doctorate degree. (Photo: Francis Chiz Escudero\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u2014Sen. Francis Escudero on Wednesday said that he did not move to have the University of the Philippines (UP) offer Pres. Rodrigo Duterte an honorary doctorate degree.<\/p>\n

However, Escudero said that neither did he object when it was proposed by the UP Board of Regents, the university\u2019s highest policy-making body.<\/p>\n

Escudero made this clarification following reports that he moved to discuss Pres. Duterte’s conferment. Escudero is the Senate representative to the BOR.<\/p>\n

“I did not move but I did not object when it was proposed,\u201d Escudero told reporters.<\/p>\n

The senator explained that it is a UP tradition to offer Philippine heads of state, including the Chief Justice and Senate President, honorary degrees when they are invited to be commencement speakers.<\/p>\n

He stressed that most of the time, almost every honorary degree offered by UP has been \u201ccontroversial\u201d and \u201cnever unanimous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess that too is part of UP’s long history and tradition,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Escudero, however, said that it will still be up to the conferee, Pres. Duterte, if he will accept it.<\/p>\n

He maintained that the honorary degree is not given unilaterally and needs to be accepted before being conferred.<\/p>\n

Malaca\u00f1ang, for its part, said that an honorary degree from UP is not something that Pres. Duterte would run after but said the President might accept the offer as a sign of goodwill.<\/p>\n

“It would be quite an honor to receive that (honorary degree), but it\u2019s not something that he (Pres. Duterte) is, you know, angling for. Of course, a sign of mutual respect would be in place here,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said during a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

“Although he doesn\u2019t run after awards, you know, it would be a sign of goodwill towards the highest, well, one of the most premiere, one of the three premiere institutions,” he added.<\/p>\n

Some students and alumni are opposing the move due to alleged human rights violations in the campaign against drugs.<\/p>\n

Abella, however, said that Pres. Duterte would still be inclined to accept the conferment if it is offered.<\/p>\n

Malaca\u00f1ang has yet to receive an official communications from UP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u2014Sen. Francis Escudero on Wednesday said that he did not move to have the University of the Philippines (UP) offer …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":87862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[10122,2444],"class_list":["post-99042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-francis-escudero","tag-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}