An alleged apology letter from the late US Senator, Robert F. Kennedy's daughter, Kerry Kennedy is now circulating online. Kerry's letter confirmed that Philippine Senator Vicente "Tito" Sotto III indeed plagiarized her father's speech and demands a public apology.
Here is the screenshot of the letter from Kerry Kennedy that was posted on the Rappler's site
Source: http://www.rappler.com/
related posts:
Tito Sotto on "Copying as the Highest Form of Flattery"
Tito Sotto: On Plagiarism and Translation of Robert F. Kennedy's Speech
Tito Sotto: On Plagiarism and Cyber Bullying
Tito Sotto Plagiarized a Blog PostTito Sotto: On Plagiarism and Cyber Bullying
The controversial Philippines Senator started it all from PLAGIARISM but who would have though he will stop from there. He did it again but this time it was plagiarism with Tagalog translation. He copied part of Robert Kennedy's speech and passing it off as his own.
“It was texted to me by a friend. I found the idea good. I translated it into Tagalog. So what’s the problem?” Tito Sotto told the Philippine Daily Inquirer when asked plagiarism accusations. Sotto added,“Ano? Marunong nang mag-Tagalog si Kennedy? [What now? Does Kennedy now know how to speak in Tagalog]?.”
A Debate Challenge:Tito Sotto vs Claudio/Syjuco
Sotto Plagiarized Kennedy? Photo from Twitter user Michel EldiyRobert F. Kennedy’s speech during Day of Affirmation, June 6 1966.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/RFK-Speeches/Day-of-Affirmation-Address-news-release-text-version.aspx
Sotto’s Privilege Speech, September 5, 2012.
http://www.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2012/0905_sotto2.asp
photo credit: copied from Facebook wall
Tito Sotto, you have to face the fact that you Plagiarized and it is a crime, no matter what your opinions are, don't fool the Filipino people because you are just fooling yourself. Stop making fun of yourself. And don't act like an underdog, you know better than that.
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Dear Tito Sen,
Almost a year ago, I challenged you to a public debate on the Reproductive Health Bill. I did so because of your facile understanding of statistical analysis, which led you to question the maternal mortality rate in the Philippines. In response, you said it was “superfluous” to debate outside the Senate, and that doing so would be “an insult to Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Pia Cayetano, who are both defending the bill.”
After I received your love letter, I spoke to both Sen. Defensor-Santiago and Sen. Cayetano. Neither of them would feel slighted if you granted my request. My dear Sen. Sotto, it is in this light that I humbly reissue my challenge. This time around, however, I offer a variation: below is another letter from Miguel Syjuco – my tag-team partner.
Hopefully you are more open to debating now. In your last privilege speech, you complained about cyber-bullying and claimed that your detractors refuse to refute the substantive portions of your turno en contra speeches. Should you accept our challenge, we will do exactly as you requested. Present all your evidence, and we will respond accordingly. If you want a tag-team partner of your own, there is always the CBCP.
In the past year, you have disregarded and misrepresented the arguments of RH advocates, while slandering them as individuals. And yet you ensconce yourself within the protective barrier of parliamentary immunity. It is you, not us, who have refused to engage.
You insist that your cause is just. Your allies from the CBCP and the theocratic right claim you are on God’s side. Such platitudes impel you to defend your views/faith outside the Senate floor. Do not fail your bishops. Do not be a coward.
If you feel, however, that the time for debating is over, it is your job as Majority Floor Leader to let the legislative process run its course. Put this bill to a vote.
As we challenge you anew, we are also encouraging other RH advocates to do the same. If for some reason you – a senator of the Philippines – do not want to debate a junior academic and a freelance writer, perhaps you would deign to square off with our other allies.
Whatever the case, your duty as a public official requires you to face your dissenting constituents. Go on, show us you have what it takes.
Sincerely,
Leloy Claudio
Teacher and concerned citizen
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Dear Tito Sotto,
You are senator to all Filipinos—the millions who live at home and the millions who, like me, make a life abroad. You serve as a democratically elected leader both to those who agree with you and those, like me, who do not. You are answerable to us all.
Your critics accuse you of deliberately delaying voting on the Reproductive Health Bill. Others believe you have also plagiarized in your speeches and acted with conduct unbecoming a senator. It’s time you put that to rest, or allow immediate voting on the RH Bill.
As you know, the legislature and the media are key venues for public discourse on matters pertinent to the development of our nation. Discussion is vital to democracy. As such, Leloy Claudio and I issue you a challenge: a tag-team debate.
In one corner, Mr. Claudio and me. In the other, you and a partner of your choosing from your allies among the Catholic bishops. We can finally debate the benefits and faults of the RH Bill, as well as the legality, ethicality, and propriety of your unauthorized appropriation of other people’s work. No mudslinging. No ad hominem attacks. No senate immunity.
This debate is important because there remain questions that deserve answers. For instance, you’ve avoided allegations that, in addition to Sarah Pope and three other online sources, you also plagiarized the work of Janice Formichella and Peter Engelman, two American writers who tell me personally that you copied-and-pasted from their copyrighted work. Nor have you provided tangible proof that the pill Diane was linked to the very tragic death of your son, nor explained how your wife even took Diane in 1974 when it only existed in 1978. Neither you nor Hector Villacorta has addressed these issues.
Since you say copying is permitted in the Philippines, I propose a catchy name for our event: D'Thrilla sa Manila. Subtitled: Church & State vs. Academia & the Internet.
This will be streamed live on the Internet for the world to see.
To quiet the accusations that you are merely filibustering, this debate must occur no later than the day after your final turno en contra speech, and should cap discussion and guarantee voting in the Senate before the end of session. The wheels of democracy must be allowed to turn.
If you refuse this challenge, there’s evidently nothing more to discuss, and you must allow voting on the RH Bill to proceed immediately.
Sincerely,
Miguel Syjuco
Writer and concerned citizen
http://www.gmanetwork.com/
Almost a year ago, I challenged you to a public debate on the Reproductive Health Bill. I did so because of your facile understanding of statistical analysis, which led you to question the maternal mortality rate in the Philippines. In response, you said it was “superfluous” to debate outside the Senate, and that doing so would be “an insult to Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Pia Cayetano, who are both defending the bill.”
After I received your love letter, I spoke to both Sen. Defensor-Santiago and Sen. Cayetano. Neither of them would feel slighted if you granted my request. My dear Sen. Sotto, it is in this light that I humbly reissue my challenge. This time around, however, I offer a variation: below is another letter from Miguel Syjuco – my tag-team partner.
Hopefully you are more open to debating now. In your last privilege speech, you complained about cyber-bullying and claimed that your detractors refuse to refute the substantive portions of your turno en contra speeches. Should you accept our challenge, we will do exactly as you requested. Present all your evidence, and we will respond accordingly. If you want a tag-team partner of your own, there is always the CBCP.
In the past year, you have disregarded and misrepresented the arguments of RH advocates, while slandering them as individuals. And yet you ensconce yourself within the protective barrier of parliamentary immunity. It is you, not us, who have refused to engage.
You insist that your cause is just. Your allies from the CBCP and the theocratic right claim you are on God’s side. Such platitudes impel you to defend your views/faith outside the Senate floor. Do not fail your bishops. Do not be a coward.
If you feel, however, that the time for debating is over, it is your job as Majority Floor Leader to let the legislative process run its course. Put this bill to a vote.
As we challenge you anew, we are also encouraging other RH advocates to do the same. If for some reason you – a senator of the Philippines – do not want to debate a junior academic and a freelance writer, perhaps you would deign to square off with our other allies.
Whatever the case, your duty as a public official requires you to face your dissenting constituents. Go on, show us you have what it takes.
Sincerely,
Leloy Claudio
Teacher and concerned citizen
-----------
Dear Tito Sotto,
You are senator to all Filipinos—the millions who live at home and the millions who, like me, make a life abroad. You serve as a democratically elected leader both to those who agree with you and those, like me, who do not. You are answerable to us all.
Your critics accuse you of deliberately delaying voting on the Reproductive Health Bill. Others believe you have also plagiarized in your speeches and acted with conduct unbecoming a senator. It’s time you put that to rest, or allow immediate voting on the RH Bill.
As you know, the legislature and the media are key venues for public discourse on matters pertinent to the development of our nation. Discussion is vital to democracy. As such, Leloy Claudio and I issue you a challenge: a tag-team debate.
In one corner, Mr. Claudio and me. In the other, you and a partner of your choosing from your allies among the Catholic bishops. We can finally debate the benefits and faults of the RH Bill, as well as the legality, ethicality, and propriety of your unauthorized appropriation of other people’s work. No mudslinging. No ad hominem attacks. No senate immunity.
This debate is important because there remain questions that deserve answers. For instance, you’ve avoided allegations that, in addition to Sarah Pope and three other online sources, you also plagiarized the work of Janice Formichella and Peter Engelman, two American writers who tell me personally that you copied-and-pasted from their copyrighted work. Nor have you provided tangible proof that the pill Diane was linked to the very tragic death of your son, nor explained how your wife even took Diane in 1974 when it only existed in 1978. Neither you nor Hector Villacorta has addressed these issues.
Since you say copying is permitted in the Philippines, I propose a catchy name for our event: D'Thrilla sa Manila. Subtitled: Church & State vs. Academia & the Internet.
This will be streamed live on the Internet for the world to see.
To quiet the accusations that you are merely filibustering, this debate must occur no later than the day after your final turno en contra speech, and should cap discussion and guarantee voting in the Senate before the end of session. The wheels of democracy must be allowed to turn.
If you refuse this challenge, there’s evidently nothing more to discuss, and you must allow voting on the RH Bill to proceed immediately.
Sincerely,
Miguel Syjuco
Writer and concerned citizen
http://www.gmanetwork.com/
photo credit: http://
The Philippine politic drama still has a long way to go. Senator Tito Sotto started it all from his RH Bill speech copied from the US Blogger that was found out by one of the well known Filipino Blogger. The news on plagiarism spread Worldwide. He and his camp denied the plagiarism accussations quoting “Why would I quote from a blogger? She is just a blogger.”
But it did not stop from there, the Senator even made it a bigger issue for his own purposes this time. Part of his latest speech is, " Ako yata ang kauna-unahang senador ng Pilipinas na naging biktima ng cyber-bullying. Mula sa blogs, Facebook, at Twitter, ginawa akong sentro ng mga mapanira at malisyosong atake ng iba’t ibang tao, lalo pa ng mga sumusuporta sa RH Bill. Bahagi siguro ito ng kanilang istratehiya, lalo pa’t may milyun-milyon silang pondo. “If you can’t kill the message, kill the messenger.” Mukhang ganito ang ginagawa ng aking mga detractors."
My stand, "No matter what you says Mr. Senator, the issue is, you plagiarized. If you did not do it, then there wouldn’t be any issue." If he and his staff simply apologized by admitting their mistake and moved on, then the issue will not probably spread Worldwide and will just die naturally.
Part of Sarah's blog post, a US blogger where Sotto copied his speech says "A thief is a thief, Mr. Senator. Denying it doesn't get you off the hook; it just makes you a lying thief." On Plagiarism, The Pill, and Presumptuousness http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/
Well, the issue of plagiarism has been as issue to Senator Tito Sotto's anti-RH speech that was copied from Sarah's blog, a US blogger. He denied copying it to "The Healthy Home Economist", insisting that both of them took it from the same source, Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride. Oh well, whatever his lame excuses are, it just shows how ignorant he is about plagiarism and blogging and most of all he hired incompetent staffs who doesn't know how to prepare an original speech for him.
This issue has come to Sarah's attention already and she made a blog post about it, http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/on-plagiarism-the-pill-and-presumptuousness/. Sarah commented on his own post pertaining to the Senator "My blog was quoted, not Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride, I put her works in my own words and you copied my words".
Sotto's speech
1 According, to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD, use of other drugs such as the Pill also cause severe gut dybiosis. What’s worse, drug induced gut imbalance is especially intractable and resistant to treatment either with probiotics or diet change.
2 gut imbalance brought on through use of The Pill negatively impacts the ability to digest food and absorb nutrients. As a result, even if a women eats spectacularly well during pregnancy, if she has been taking oral contraceptives for a period of time beforehand, it is highly likely that she and her baby are not reaping the full benefits of all this healthy food as the lack of beneficial flora in her gut preclude this from occurring.
3 Pathogenic, opportunistic flora that take hold in the gut when The Pill is used constantly produce toxic substances which are the by-products of their metabolism. These toxins leak into the woman’s bloodstream and guess what, they have the potential to cross the placenta! Therefore, gut dysbiosis exposes the fetus to toxins
4 Not well known is the fact that use of The Pill depletes zinc in the body. Zinc is called “the intelligence mineral” as it is intimately involved in mental development. see original post -http://filipinofreethinkers.org/2012/08/15/sottos-reckless-method-of-legislation-is-inexcusable/
photo credit: PEBA
