Duterte’s UP degree and anti-intellectualism

Singapore—“Knowing my father, he does not give a heck with any ‘honorary degree.’ You can have that honorary degree for all we care.”

The shade in Paolo “Pulong” Duterte’s April 19 statement was not what was striking. It was how he unconsciously addressed critics as “so-called learned individuals.” Superimposing level of education onto every issue has become so ubiquitous he did not even notice.

Pulong was not attacking the University of the Philippines community. He merely reminded that his father “has always shied away from public recognitions.” But citing learning was out of place because UP students, protesting at the steps of school buildings and on Facebook, alleged a lack of values, not learning.

It is time we stopped conflating education and elitism. It is time we stopped implicitly attacking learning in every debate.

Education must be a great equalizer, not a political divide.

The mindset must be that anyone can become educated, so no one needs to mock learning.

Candidate Rodrigo Duterte was, of course, the aikidoka of using an opponent’s learning against him. In December 2015, he announced that rival Mar Roxas’ prestigious Wharton BS Economics degree was a myth.

An idiotic weeklong debate erupted on whether a Wharton undergraduate is a graduate. Roxas fell into the trap, dropping technocrat gravitas to challenge Duterte to a fistfight.

As so-called learned individuals nitpicked, Duterte’s week of free media drove home the point that people relate to the “75-percent” student who hires the valedictorian.

But attacking education is persisting too long after the election and outside masterful political theater.

Ateneo students spontaneously protested along Katipunan Avenue in November 2016, after the Supreme Court upheld President Duterte’s Marcos state burial. The justices were criticized not over issues, but as out of touch, ivory tower intellectuals with a myopic view of history.

Reverse anti-intellectualism is just as vicious.

Celebrity tour guide Carlos Celdran coined “Dutertard” from “retard” in December 2015. It endures as the one word lampoon of Mr. Duterte’s supporters as gullible fanatics, beyond Randy David’s “Dutertismo.”

And before that came bobotante (stupid voter).

Mr. Duterte’s social media cheerleader Mocha Uson is most popularly bashed as slut and idiot. Critics cite her old nude photos and floundering when interviewed by host Solita Monsod on GMA’s “Bawal ang Pasaway,” long before they rebut her message. Ateneo’s Matanglawin magazine turned into Tanganglawin and the Mochang Tanga (stupid) Blog in last year’s spoof.

Video highlights of Sen. Manny Pacquiao struggling with interpellation by Sen. Franklin Drilon on his proposed boxing commission went viral. An Abante headline last month read: “Sen. Pacquiao, ‘naubusan’ ng Ingles sa debate” (ran out of English).

We revel in juxtaposing “Mochang Tanga” with UP professor emeritus Monsod; high school dropout Pacquiao with Drilon, one of his generation’s most brilliant lawyers; and actress and losing senatorial candidate Alma Moreno with TOYM-awarded journalist Karen Davila.

No one humiliates more educated interviewees with the same glee. No #PrayforAlma hashtag trended after retired justice Angelina Sandoval Gutierrez’s viral grilling of a Supreme Court candidate on the Marcos burial decision, until she
admitted she did not read it.

When someone dismisses education, remember Kristel Tejada. Her schoolmates nicknamed her “candy girl” because she seemed so happy she gave out candies. It turned out candies were all she could afford for lunch, a UP Manila student told me.

Tejada committed suicide in 2013 over P6,337 in UP tuition. She was 16.

When someone cites tradition, remember that UP’s greatest tradition upholds education as a constitutional right, not a privilege. UP empowers a daughter of a Tondo taxi driver who, perhaps, never dreamed of sending her to college, as a so-called learned individual who might dream of becoming president someday.

Tejada would agree with how Pulong began his statement: “Growing up, we were taught by our father of the value
of education.”

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