High Society Diploma Comes Cheap

by: Boldstar

Last year I met a former batch mate from Singapore for coffee on my way to Bangkok Thailand. She has been working in Human Resources for a large company. After 2 lattes of catching up, she mentioned that our degrees should have included forensic analysis and alumni speed dialing because most of her work especially vetting for degree qualified vacancies includes having to contact various institutions particularly from India, China and the Philippines to confirm whether Maria graduated with a degree in engineering or Pedro did indeed acquire a masters degree through coursework rather than through Visa, MasterCard and/or American express.

Because online, I was able to buy a doctorate degree for my son Mr Samson May for $199 dollars. The problem is Dr. May is my cuddly purebred Rottweiler.

So why do people fake their qualification?

According to Singapore's Manpower Ministry, applicants want to have an edge in the competitive job market and so fake their qualifications, and embellish their resume by enhancing their work accomplishments and roles. That's why people are buying diplomas from online degree mills charging between a few dollars to thousands depending on whether an after sale service is required with telephone operators verifying degrees and sending transcripts to prospective employees. Filipinos have it easy, they just go to "Recto University" along Claro M. Recto Avenue in Manila for expediency and prompt service.

After conducting a survey Michael Worthington, co-founder of workplace expert ResumeDoctor.com, stated that "something you put on your resume could haunt you years later." Remember George O'Leary? His name is forever etched on my memory after our university career counsellor constantly warned us not to do an "O'leary" on our resume. George was Notre Dame's football coach for all of five days. Then the lies on his resume caught up with him. He had said he had a master's degree in education from "NYU-Stony Brook University". Well it is a campus that doesn't exist and he only took two courses from NYU and never graduated. Another is Mark Victor Hansen, a motivational speaker, co-creator of the "chicken soup for the soul" book series which is the biggest selling non-fiction franchise in the history of American publishing, and Oprah aficionado. Having been awarded an honorary PHD in 2002, his lies soon caught up with him when it was revealed that his two master's degrees from Southern Illinois University according to the New Yorker were a figment of his imagination.

Our local "celebrities" have also been caught extending their scholastic achievements. So does Wendy Puyat (a publicized high society “celebrity”) have a master's degree in visual communications from the Ecole Supérièure de Design Industrelle-Créapole (ENSCI) and the Sorbonne? Or is it one of those Recto University degrees? Based on my research, it is pie in the sky. Like having Italian "grade" fabric which is very much a creative extension of Italian Made, highly associating her designs with the luxury fabric industry that brought fame and wealth to Venice and many Italian regions since the renaissance period. By the way, the Sorbonne is the prestigious University Paris-Sorbonne founded in 1257 nowadays symbolising the French university system as well as representing the French intellectual prowess. Famous alumni include St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, Victor Hugo, and Pope Benedict XVI - born Joseph Alois Ratzinger, and then Wendy Puyat according to her website.

Talking about creative extensions, I noticed that our very own "ambassadress of beauty", Vicki Belo otherwise known as surgeon to the stars is very thin on experience. Calling yourself surgeon from a one year residency at Makati Med, one year dermatology diploma in Thailand and preceptorship with Dr Jeffrey Klein who never endorses anyone with just 2.5 days of training is quite remarkable. But like anything in Manila, you can get someone else to suck fat out of people.

Hopefully Bong Revilla Jr will not make me call him Doctor.

Why should we care?

First, it is illegal under section 315 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines and secondly it stains the authenticity of our educational system affecting everyone with a degree gained after at least four years of hard work. Filipino workers are now particularly scrutinized specially when an increasing number of OFW's now include doctors, nurses, therapist, oil rig engineers, software developers, hotel executives, not just nannies and go-go dancers as in the past. Our counterfeit industry is so good the Koreans came in droves buying fake "Recto" degrees. Furthermore, it wasn't so long ago that Philippine-trained doctors now based in the US as well as the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) filed protests against Desperate Housewife after a discriminatory remark about doctors graduating from the Philippines, signifying how global the perception and presumption that training is of low quality in this country.

That is why your achievement should speak for itself like Kermit the frog who received an Honorary Doctorate in Amphibious Letters from the authentic Long Island University, as a result of environmental efforts. Fake degrees are the same as passing a fake Louis Vuitton Bag, as the real thing, nakakadiri like the parade of fakes during the movie premiere screening of "for the first time".