This is just additional information to the story “Why Duterte almost missed the bar exams” (5/31/18). The article by Julie M. Aurelio mentioned that the (Benedictine) priests did not allow President Duterte to graduate.
This first-hand information was relayed to me by my father, lawyer Feliciano C. Ledesma Jr., who was also in attendance during said graduation practice, and also happens to be the son of the late Feliciano Jover Ledesma, the dean of the San Beda College of Law at the time.
What is not in the article is how my grandfather thought hard and fought for Rodrigo Duterte to make sure he took the bar exams.
It was an unprecedented event, so it was not an easy decision.
He asked for counsel from my father and his close friends about the personality of said student and if they thought he should be expelled for bringing a gun inside the campus.
After much thought, Dean Ledesma decided not to allow Mr. Duterte to join the graduation ceremony, since bringing a firearm to school, much more shooting a fellow student, was
(and still is) considered a serious offense.
But he also thought of the student’s future.
Would he allow it destroyed because of one lapse in judgment, or create a scenario that would benefit all while, at the same time, sending a message that violence cannot and should not be tolerated?
Mr. Duterte’s fear of his mother knowing about the incident should have been enough punishment, I think.
So what my grandfather did was to make sure Mr. Duterte took the bar exams, since he had finished law already. He passed, of course, and the rest is history.
MARTIN FELICIANO G. LEDESMA III, grandson of the late Dean Feliciano Jover Ledesma, mar3ledesma@yahoo.com