MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Imee Marcos filed in mid-September a bill that would rename a state university in Ilocos Norte after her father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
The explanatory note of Senate Bill (SB) 1044, filed on September 11 and passed on first reading on September 17, said it seeks foremost to remove the confusion resulting from Mariano Marcos State University’s (MMSU) name and the similar Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU) in La Union.
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"Hence, this Ilocos Norte SUC (state university and college) should instead be named after former Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos, rather than his father, the Assemblyman, Mariano Marcos,” the bill read.
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The bill is currently pending at the Senate committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education.
Its complete title is “An Act Modernizing the Charter of the Mariano Marcos State University and Renaming the Same as the Ferdinand E. Marcos State University, Amending for this Purpose Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1279, and for Other Purposes.”
MMSU was formed by the late dictator on Jan. 6, 1978, merging three former schools in Ilocos Norte.
DMMMSU was also established by PD 1778 on Jan. 15, 1981, which merged five former schools in La Union.
Imee is the eldest of the Marcos children. The late president placed the entire country under Martial Law on Sept. 21, 1972.
Based on the estimates of Amnesty International, about 7,000 were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured and 3,240 were killed during Martial Law—considered as one of the darkest times in the Philippines.
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