Bar passer Sara hits back at ‘flunker’ Madriaga
Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday lashed back at her alleged former “bagman,” Ramil Madriaga, for disparaging her performance as a law student, in return calling him “a bar flunker and a kidnapping suspect.”
“Of all the lies thrown” by Madriaga during a hearing of the House justice committee on the impeachment complaints against her, “the one I take issue with is the claim, made by a bar flunker and kidnapping suspect, that I needed someone to get me through law school,’’ Duterte said in a statement.
Appearing as witness in support of the impeachment complaints, Madriaga said Duterte was “not particularly good” when still studying law at San Sebastian College-Recoletos in Manila.
He said he learned this from Ryan Rey Quilala, a former assistant special prosecutor at the Office of the Ombudsman. As one of Duterte’s law professors at San Sebastian back then, Quilala “used his influence at SSC-Law to ensure that Sara received passing grades despite her poor academic performance,” he said.
‘A well-rounded life’
Madriaga touched on Duterte’s law studies in the 24-page supplemental affidavit he read before the House panel to prove his connections to her and her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.
During her years as the concurrent education secretary, Madriaga said, he served as a courier who, on Duterte’s orders, delivered large sums of cash drawn from her confidential funds to various parties.
In her statement on Wednesday, Duterte—who last week filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to stop the House impeachment hearings—did not dwell on the alleged cash deliveries and only focused on disputing Madriaga’s statements about her schooling.
“I completed my studies on my own terms,” she stressed. “I placed a higher premium on living a well-rounded life rather than pursuing academic excellence.”
She never asked any professor for “special accommodation” concerning her grades “because the bare minimum was easy enough to meet,” he added.
Passed on ‘first attempt’
As to Madriaga’s claims that she was also “violent” or “rude” during her years in law school, Duterte said she had never been the subject of any related complaint.
To further prove her point, Duterte said she passed the bar exams “on my first attempt” within the same year she graduated—2005.
“The exam that year was relatively difficult. I passed the Bar on my first attempt with a (general weighted average) of 80, five points above the minimum.”
She again also lambasted the House justice committee for holding a “mini-trial” on the impeachment complaints, and recalled that there were also bribery allegations involving lawmakers when the House tackled the first set of complaints against her last year.
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