The Mindanao Polytechnic State College (MPSC) recently gave an honorary degree in humanities to Cagayan de Oro vice-mayor Vicente Y. Emano. This is irregular because of several legal prohibitions. Republic Act 8292,also known as the “Higher Education Modernization Act of 1997”, states that colleges and universities can “award honorary degrees upon persons … within the academic competence of the university or college ….”
MPSC has no competence in the field of humanities. It has no course in humanities.
Wikipedia defines humanities as “academic disciplines which study the human condition, using methods that are largely analytic, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural and social sciences.
"Examples of the disciplines related to humanities are ancient and modern languages, literature, history, philosophy, religion, visual and performing arts (including music). Additional subjects sometimes included in the humanities are anthropology, area studies, communications and cultural studies, although these are often regarded as social sciences.”
The Encyclopedia Britannica has a similar definition: “…The humanities include the study of all languages and literatures, the arts, history, and philosophy ….”
The list of academic programs of MPSC excludes all the aforementioned subjects. The school does not teach the humanities, and it has no department of humanities, because the laws that create this institution restrict it to the teaching of science and technology:
Presidential Decree 1431, Section 1: “The present Mindanao School of Arts and Trades located in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines, is hereby converted into Don Mariano Marcos Memorial Polytechnic State College [DMMMPSC] to take care of human resource development for industry, agriculture and forestry, and fishery and maritime studies through a network of satellite institutions throughout the region.”
The same decree, Section 2: “The purpose of the college shall be to provide higher vocational, professional, and technological instruction and training in trade, agriculture, fishery and maritime studies and to promote research, needed to support the industrialization program in Northern Mindanao.”
Moreover, and this is probably the most crucial, Section 4 paragraph b states that DMMMPSC has the power and duty “To confer titles, bachelor's and master's degrees to successful candidates for graduation;”
PD 1431 does not give the school the right to confer doctorate degrees, including honorary degrees. Strangely, however, MPSC offers three doctorate degrees in Technology Education, Educational Planning and Management, and in Mathematical Sciences.
Republic Act 7102 renamed DMMMPSC into the present Mindanao Polytechnic State College, but this act has no new set of laws that describes the purpose of the institution. So, its purpose as stated in PD 1431 remains the same.
How did I come up with this information when I’m not a lawyer and I don’t have a Ph.D. degree?
Simple. I use a wireless product of science and technology.
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