It's a shame that this is the second time that I'll be blogging about plagiarism committed by our country's top leaders. The first one I wrote in November 2010 was that of Supreme Court Associate Justice Mariano Del Castillo who copied his ruling from two international law experts, namely professors Evan Criddle and Evan Fox-Decent of the universities of Syracuse and McGill respectively. Del Castillo's ruling has involved the dismissal of the case of 70 comfort women in compelling the Philippine government to support their claim to seek apology and reparation from the Japanese government. More shameful is the fact that Del Castillo was absolved by his colleagues in togas and that his impeachment was shelved by the House of Representatives.
Now, it's Wanbol University's Tito Escalera aka Sen. Tito Sotto who's turned into a copycat. We all know that Sotto is against the Reproductive Health Bill and to convince Filipinos of the "evil" of the RH Bill, he resorts to all kinds of tactics - from grandstanding and shedding crocodile tears in the Senate. In so doing, he's been lifting phrases, sentences and paragraphs from different sources including those of the late Robert F. Kennedy. Sotto has been chastised and called names by those whose works he plagiarized and by the lot of us who cannot tolerate dishonesty in any form from any public official. And yet he refuses to admit the flagrant act and apologize. Just like his character Tito Escalera in Iskul Bukol, Sen. Sotto is talagang kapalmuks.
Below is the scathing letter from Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert Kennedy, to our "esteemed" Senator Sotto who made RFK's "ripple of hope" his very own.
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