The Brilliance of Ferdinand Marcos - - A Bar Legend
Marcos studied law at the University of the Philippines, attending
the prestigious College of Law. He
excelled in both curricular and extra-curricular activities, becoming a
valuable member of the university's swimming, boxing, and wrestling teams. He
was also an accomplished and prolific orator,
debater, and writer for the student newspaper. He also became a member of the University
of the Philippines ROTC Unit (UP Vanguard Fraternity) where he met some of
Armed Forces Chiefs
of Staff. He sat for the 1939 Bar Examinations, receiving a near-perfect score
of 98.8%. Although some have disputed this score. The Supreme Court then called
him to an Oral Examination addressing some complaints that Marcos had cheated.
He was the first ever to be called upon Oral Examinations. He then mesmerized
the judges with his wits by answering their questions brilliantly. The Supreme
Court then made his grade at 92.35 although their was no evidence that he
cheated. Thus, he graduated cum laude despite
the fact that he was incarcerated while reviewing. Had he not been in jail for
27 days, he would have graduated magna cum
laude. He was elected to the Pi Gamma Mu and
the Phi Kappa Phi international honour
societies, the latter giving him its Most Distinguished Member Award
37 years later.
In Seagrave's book The
Marcos Dynasty, he mentioned that Marcos possessed a phenomenal
memory and exhibited this by memorizing complicated texts and
reciting them forward and backward, even such as the 1935 Constitution of the
Philippines. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, in an interview with the Philippine
Star on March 25, 2012, shared her experience as a speech
writer to President Marcos: "One time, the Secretary of Justice forgot to
tell me that the President had requested him to draft a speech that the
President was going to deliver before graduates of the law school. And then, on
the day the President was to deliver the speech, he suddenly remembered because
Malacañang was asking for the speech, so he said, 'This is an emergency. You
just have to produce something.' And I just dictated the speech. He liked long
speeches. I think that was 20 or 25 pages. And then, in the evening, I was
there, of course. President Marcos recited the speech from memory."