Dear Imee, Take 2: Another Open Letter to Imee Marcos

What is it about you that spurs me to write another letter?

It’s your propensity for pseudologia fantastica. In layman’s terms: lying.

You have all the money in the world to get what you want and yet, you could not buy them all: all three schools—Princeton, UP, and AIM—have no record of you finishing the degrees you claim to have earned. And no diploma is for sale from these schools.

All three schools have already denied your claim, yet you persist to lie. You show us photos of you in a toga at a graduation-like affair, which do not show you receiving any diploma. In fact, in Filipino, you insisted, “Ah, basta ang alam ko, nag-graduate ako.” (Transliteration: Ah, but what I know is that I graduated.)

It is not demeaning to tell the truth. In fact, you’ll be a better person because of it. It is not wrong to be an undergraduate—but lying is.  It makes the nose grow long the way puppet Pinocchio’s did with every lie. Only when he finally learned to be truthful did be become a real human being. 

 

Your allies, particularly Sara Duterte (the President’s daughter and head of your party), have come to your defense, “One does not need a college degree to run for the senate.”  I agree. So why continue lying?

Sara did not stop there, she sneered, “Everybody lies, so what’s the big deal?”

Well, many mortals do lie, but they are not running for the senate. You are.

Sara continued, “Honesty is not an election issue.”

See how low we’ve sunk?   

I am just one voice in the wilderness, but a voice nevertheless. I represent the voters who live by grace and faith in Scripture. Is it too much to ask for you to own up? If you have no diploma from these schools, say so. It will unburden you from the onus of lying.

There is no better time than now to speak the truth, so should you become a senator, you can face us, your constituents, squarely. 

“The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in those who tell the truth.” Proverbs 12:22 (NLT)