The University of the Philippines Board of Regents (BOR), the university’s highest policy making body, has offered a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, degree to President Rodrigo Duterte as part of tradition.
The state university’s students and alumni have expressed their disappointment over UP’s decision, saying Duterte must instead be held accountable for the thousands of deaths under his administration’s bloody crackdown on drugs.
Former student regent Cleve Arguelles in a public post said Duterte should be conferred instead with a doctorate on “crimes against humanity,” due his administration’s brutal war on drugs that has left thousands of suspected drug pushers and addicts killed. Meanwhile Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella downplayed the issue by saying that Duterte was not after the honorary doctor of laws degree.
