First, let me extend a very warm welcome to the many new Filipino readers that have discovered this blog in the past 24 hours. My husband is from Australia, so I do get down to that part of the world on occasion and I hope to visit your beautiful country at some point in the future.
It is great to have you here, although the circumstances of our meeting are, to say the least, unusual.
It seems one of your esteemed Senators, Tito Sotto, plagiarized a blog post I wrote on February 23, 2011 entitled How The Pill Can Harm Your Future Child’s Health, lifting entire sections of the article basically word for word that was delivered in a speech to the Senate Floor regarding the possible passage of the highly controversial Reproductive Health Bill.
What’s worse, Senator Sotto is denying the charge of plagiarism, saying in an interview with ABS-CBN:
“Why would I quote the blogger? I was quoting Natasha McBride.”
Nice touch Senator. You almost had me convinced you were a nice guy with the tears and all.
Many of your citizens have emailed me assuring me that was a put on, and I’m starting to think they are right.
A thief is a thief, Mr. Senator. Denying it doesn’t get you off the hook; it just makes you a lying thief.
On the bright side, I am thrilled that your lapse of moral judgment has brought much-needed attention to the fact that the birth control pill can have devastating consequences to a woman’s long term health and possibly those of her children and even grandchildren. Gut dysbiosis is a serious condition that has multi-generational consequences that women need to be educated about and completely aware of before making the very personal decision to use them.
It was indeed brave of you to take this controversial position. Kudos to you for that.
By the way, I am truly sorry for the loss of your son.
As the mother of two sons myself, I can only imagine the pain and devastation you have felt from such an experience.
While this has been a highly charged and hopefully enlightening experience for all involved, it’s time now to set the drama aside and get back to fighting the good fight by continuing to educate people about how their food and pharma choices affect not only themselves but also those they dearly love.
And although my attorney will likely try to persuade me otherwise, for now I’m moving on as I’ve got work to do.
Women of the Philippines: I am terribly sorry my blog was used and twisted against you. You deserve the choice to use The Pill if you want or need to based on your particular circumstances. While I want you to know that this choice has health consequences as does the decision to use any pharmaceutical drug, I in no way would ever condone taking this choice away from you! Mabuhay!
How can a woman who is against PROCREATION still pray sincerely to GOD? Unless she prays to a god who is NOT the giver of life. Honestly, she lost her faith a long time ago already. What a sad state of soul that person is in. 🙁
Orrr maybe she doesn’t care. Maybe you’d be sad if that happened to you, but we all don’t believe in the same things.
Lucky for us God does not discriminate… He listens to everyone, even the sinners… and who are we to say what God truly thinks about all this? I hope those opposing the RH-bill would stop using morality and spirituality, because it is very arbitrary… Majority of the Filipinos may be Catholic but not everyone is, if it is against a person’s religious belief then that person has the right to not use contraceptives (natural or artificial). If those are the best arguments they have to oppose the bill then it won’t be enough.. better go with the argument about the bill taking a huge chunk from the budget, etc. or do some more research (hopefully good quality).. that might get somewhere, then again…
As for the Magna Carta for women… the thing is, hopefully the RH-bill will be able to educate men just as equally because both need to be educated.. most men here (usually underprivileged ones) think that it is solely up to the women to do measures for birth control, when there are in-fact options for men as well (and honestly, women do all the child-bearing and all already, why not share the burden of birth control?).
Plagiarism.. I am honestly disappointed. I could not believe that a lawyer and chief-of-staff would be so… ignorant and arrogant! I think Sotto should be responsible of his people’s actions, as any leader should be. He was wrong about a lot of things, and first on the list was to put trust on his staff (maybe just a couple of them.. some of his staff may be good)… I feel sad for him for this part.. I am thinking, It could be that when he delivered his speech he was unaware that passages were lifted from somewhere else (most likely the case as I don’t really think he would do these things himself), then news broke that parts of his speech were copied… he asks his staff about it and the staff denies it (they must be the one to say that thing about quoting bloggers) and so that’s what he said to the media as well. I seriously doubt that Sotto himself would got to the computer and goolge or check it himself. Again at this point, I would have taken responsibility as I am the leader.. but fired the staff responsible… But what’s really unbelievable is his staff… they allowed their boss to go public with plagiarized work, on an issue as big as this! Then, to make matters worse is they did not admit right away their mistake, they allowed their boss to deny something they know to be true… only to admit the following day that they did commit the crime. AND!!!! That comment from Atty. what’s-his-name was so arrogant my blood pressure shot up after reading it! Seriously!!! I know I am one of the privileged ones able to obtain good education but being that you claim to be a lawyer, truly plagiarism is not something new to you, it is something taught as early as highschool, nowadays, even in elementary. The nerve of this guy!! I had a hard time believing it was really from Sotto’s staff because yes, some politicians here are nothing but jokes, but surely they must employ some good staff to compensate for that… well apparently not. Why would they lift something from a blog? Not to belittle blogs, I have found tons of information and help from them, but blogs are supposed to lead to proper sources (I am thinking they actually just read about McBride from your blog and did not really bother to read that)… preferably those that are published. Especially on something as big as this, they should have searched for some hard supporting facts.
Really disappointing… On the up side… my fave part is “Women of the Philippines: I am terribly sorry my blog was used and twisted against you. You deserve the choice to use The Pill if you want or need to based on your particular circumstances. While I want you to know that this choice has health consequences, I in no way would ever condone taking this choice away from you! Mabuhay!”
Thank you for this statement. I really believe the RH-bill is about having a choice.
and another thing… To do the so called apology via the comments section??? this guy must really hate his life or something. maybe he secretly wishes to be fired… hahahaha
ooops, pahabol.
LET US CALL FOR DISBARMENT OF ATTY. VILLACORTA FOR HIS ADMISSION TO THE COMMISSION OF THE CRIME OF PLAGIARISM! SHAME! UNETHICAL! A VIOLATION OF BAR PRACTITIONER’S CREED!
DISBAR VILLACORTA!
Well, this has caused quite the international kerfuffle! Let’s hope for a silver lining as new readers of this blog explore some of the many important posts here having to do with real food nutrition, the work of Dr Weston A. Price, the underlying nutritional problems causing many modern diseases, health freedom, and flawed public policies based on profit instead of people’s well-being. There’s much to discover and consider!
Yes the one good thing is that a new source of information has been discovered by many.
True that!
Sarah,
i feel sorry that yu were not given the credit that you deserve..as a Filipino living in the Philippines,i am truly embarassed about this. by the way he’s a comedian by profession but what he did is not a joke so please extend your patience. Again, sorry for his ignorance.
God Bless!
Chris from Manila, Philippines
The senator should be aware what bloggers can do. There are a lot of Filipino Bloggers worldwide. Some countries like Iran, prohibited the use of this. They can’t speak themselves. We all have a freedom of speech. He should recognize the source of his speech. It hurts for me and to my fellow bloggers to hear his quote saying “Why should I quote a blogger?she is just a blogger”. What the heck is he talking about! Sorry Sarah for what did he said. Copy paste thing w/o permission or credits. If hes speech is a blog, for sure google will delete it.
hey sarah,
all these posts might annoy you, but this saga ain’t far from over. apparently, these morons (read:hector “theheckler” villacorta) plagiarized not just your blog, but FOUR OTHER BLOGS!
it’s gonna be fun!
Headline news:
“Pope orders Sotto to give women a choice”
Kahit sino pang writing expert tanungin nyo, kahit gumamit pa kayo ng plagiarism at copywriting checker/ software, hindi kayo makalusot!
talking about choices…this RH Bill is written for women who not only do not have much choices in life but are generally ignorant of their rights and choices because majority are uneducated and poor making them vulnerable to anything taught or told to them. Conditioning…brainwashing…this are the better terms to use when giving them “choices”. So what choices are we talking about? And yes, from a fellow (Filipino) blogger, please accept our sincere apologies for the thoughtlessness of this senator’s staff…I bet heads will roll by the end of this week.
oops again, these not this
Count me in as one of those who wish to apologize for the despicable actions by an uneducated solon and an arrogant attorney from the Philippines. These men do not deserve the prefix “honorable” and “esteemed”. They are, by their actions, the epitome of what we in the Philippines call “trapo” (translation: rag) which is short for “traditional politician”. These men do not even deserve to be used as rags to wipe my vomit off the floor when I read about this whole episode. I am so sorry. Many of my countrymen feel the same way. Let this episode, (and the actions of two idiots undeserving of public service) not be your endearing image of Filipinos. Thank you and mabuhay!