The Chief Justice is a graduate - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

The Chief Justice is a graduate - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

The Chief Justice is a graduate
By Nikko Dizon
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:50:00 04/04/2011


MANILA, Philippines—The highest magistrate in the land was among the 400 graduates of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Graduate School which held its commencement rites at the Puerto Real Gardens in Intramuros Sunday.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, 62, was the class valedictorian and one of its six summa cum laude graduates, earning for himself a doctorate degree in Civil Law.

Corona, in his valedictory speech, described himself “not as a public official nor as the head of the judiciary, but as a most humble and grateful student.”

“My fellow graduates,” he addressed his audience, as his red toga flapped in the early evening breeze, stressing that education should never stop, that everybody should “unceasingly seek to learn new things.”

“This is my dream. I have several honorary doctorates already. But my dream is to have an earned doctorate. And this is an earned doctorate. I worked hard for it, that’s why I am proud of it,” Corona told reporters after the four-hour ceremony.

Just two weeks ago, he was conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by Bohol University.

Last year, Renmin University of China Law School, the top law school in the People’s Republic of China, made him an Honorary Professor of Law, in recognition of his legal scholarship and expertise in international law.

In 2006, he was conferred a degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, by University of Batangas, and the next year, by University of Cebu.

But Corona, even after he had been appointed to the Supreme Court spent his Saturdays for the past five years at the UST Graduate School, not only to teach, but to burn the midnight oil to earn his own doctorate.

Corona’s doctoral dissertation was on environmental law, which he defended and lectured on in a convocation attended by some 300 graduate school students, faculty members and experts.

Corona admitted that the most difficult part of being a student was when he had to submit papers. It would be “embarrassing,” he said, if he submitted a less than stellar assignment that would disappoint his professors.

“I really gave time and effort into producing quality papers,” he said.