THE trouble with lying these days is not the lying itself, but that how quick can fact-checking get in this age of networked vigilance.
Some enterprising student journalists of The Daily Princetonian or “The Prince,” an independent newspaper in Princeton University, released last Feb. 24 a report about the false claims of senatorial candidate and daughter of the late president Ferdinand Marcos, Imee Marcos.
In her curriculum vitae posted on her official website, Marcos claimed that she took graduate studies in anthropology, sociology, literature, arts, history and theater from Princeton University in New Jersey, USA. Another detail said she had independent majors in religion and politics in the same university. She said she graduated from the university in 1979, but the university newspaper reported otherwise.
“Although she enrolled in the University in 1973, no record shows that she graduated,” The Prince said.
An email from Princeton University’s Deputy University spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss revealed to The Prince that Marcos attended “from fall 1973 to spring 1976 and returned again for fall 1977 to spring 1979.”
It is, however, true that Marcos had a double concentration on religion and politics. But Hotchkiss wrote: “Our records do not show that Ms. Marcos was awarded a degree.”
Last Feb. 14, Marcos posted on her Facebook account a supposed invitation to the Class of 1979 reunion. But “the validity of the invitation, dated August 2018, has not been confirmed,” said The Prince.
In the course of their research, The Prince’s student journalists also uncovered an interesting detail.
“In a letter from Philippine Consul General Ernesto C. Pineda to Dean of Student Affairs Adele S. Simmons dated July 30, 1973, Pineda described different accommodations that would be arranged for Marcos. She would live off campus, be escorted by Philippine security personnel, and be driven to and from campus by a Filipino chauffeur.”
The request, however, inspired protest from the Asian-American Students Association, it worried that the presence of Marcos and her security detail would threaten students “who were critical of her father’s government.”
A study said around 50 percent of people tend to embellish their resume with lies during job interview. There is Imee Marcos seeking higher public office and lying through her teeth about being “one of the first female graduates from an Ivy League School—Princeton University, graduating with honors,” while there’s the voting public that needs to see straight in the season of choosing leaders.