MANILA, Philippines - Academics from the University of the Philippines (UP), Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) and De La Salle University (DLSU) are set to file today an ethics complaint against Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III for allegedly plagiarizing the ideas of other people in his speeches against the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.
One of the complainants, Lisandro Claudio of ADMU’s Department of Political Science, said that the complaint will be filed before the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges.
“We want this to be discussed in the Senate,” Claudio said. “We want Sotto to admit that he has indeed plagiarized his speeches.”
Claudio was referring to the speeches made by the senator during his interpellation of the RH bill. Several groups claimed that Sotto copied the content of his speeches from various foreign blogs.
According to Claudio, they decided to file the complaint after securing documents that will support their claim.
“We wanted to make sure that we had a robust complaint,” he said, adding that they already have the statements of the foreign bloggers who claimed that their texts have been copied.
“We want the senator to apologize for what he did,” he said.
The filing of the complaint came amid the release of a letter from Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) and president of the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights.
In her letter, Kerry asked Sotto to apologize for plagiarizing one of the speeches of her father.
“Senator Sotto claimed that because he recited my father’s speech in Tagalog, rather than English, the words are his alone. This is an argument that has no ethical merit,” the letter said.
“I urge that he apologize for his unethical, unsanctioned theft of Robert Kennedy’s intellectual property and the intellectual property of all those whose work he has plagiarized,” it added.
Claudio said that they decided to file the complaint because they “believe in the principle of academic integrity.”
“We’re doing this because it’s our duty as educators,” he said. “What he did sends a bad signal to students.”
Among the proponents of the complaint are Sylvia Claudio of the UP Center for Women’s Studies; Antonio Contreras, former dean of DLSU College of Liberal Arts; Red Tani of the Filipino Freethinkers, Inc; and Barry Gutierrez of Akbayan party-list.
Senate has no rules yet
However, Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano said that until the Senate committee on ethics approves its rules on the conduct of ethics complaint against senators, there is no certainty as to when the Senate can start its probe.
“We were just overtaken by events like the impeachment early in the year and the budget hearings, but I’ve already asked the staff to look for an available time and room and to check the availability of the members to approve the rules of the committee,” Cayetano said.
He said they will look into the pending cases of those who filed earlier and try to find time to hear all of the cases.
Cayetano said the body will be neutral on the issues.
“We’re a collegial body. But that’s the balance – that you’re not above the law. It’s the balance also that you need a certain degree of statesmanship and cooperation to pass laws and to be able to conduct business as a legislative body,” he added.
“Now, whether or not a particular act constitutes a violation or unethical behavior will have to fall under the definitions according to the rules and the consensus of the members. But I can assure everyone of a fair hearing with all of these issues at hand,” the minority leader said. – With Christina Mendez, Marvin Sy