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. Â 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. Â 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. Â 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! Â Mabuhay!
thnx for the post. and for the education you give in your blog.
I prefer calling you Mr. Villacorta instead of Attorney Villacorta as you don’t deserve it. You can’t even start your sentence right! Note that you should always begin your sentence with a capital letter. It seemed like you are just texting a neighbor or a friend. Everything is in lower-case. Goodness!
I see Robert Blair Carabueno in you, Mr. Villacorta. I just hope you will realize how democracy in social media works.
This is graceful. Thank you.
nice blog… its simple… direct to the point.. STRONG ….. SCARY yet gentle .. and ending up with an attitude! nice nice nice! love this post!
Rise to fame. 🙂
Thanks for your blog.
Education is needed but doesn’t have to be come a law. Education is not only what the rh bill contains.
Hello! I would just like to reiterate that Tito Sotto is not an esteemed senator of the Philippines. I think it is safe to say that one of the reasons why he is still a senator is the lack of proper education and access to information that sadly affects most of our countrymen. With the help of technology and social media, we hope to see better results for next year’s elections. Thank you so much for your kind words about our country. Mabuhay! 🙂
First and foremost, Atty. Villacorta, your capitalization is un-lawyer-like.
Anyway, that is such a lame excuse, and for you to sound arrogant is just too much. Even if you were the ones who lifted the words, the Senator still used them in his speech delivered to the PUBLIC. Good job on proofreading (and citing) on his part, don’t you think?
It was already your fault and you still have the guts to say such words in a bad tone. How could you?!
And, to the author of this blog, sorry, but Atty. Villacorta and the Senator are not the best representations of the Filipino people. Please do excuse them for their inability to give gratitude to whom it’s due, and, of course, their ignorance, at that.
OMG I thought nobody would notice his capitalization. xD
he can capitalize his name but not his sentences…what an a$$
it’s a lousy article.
I have to disagree with the blogger on 2 points.
1. That pills messes up gut flora.
2. That the said senator is respectable. (he’s nothing more than a comedian who got popular by acting stupid, the way he conducts himself in the senate indicates that it is not an act) Likewise, he has shown a high level of ignorance and bigotry on various issues. Lastly, despite his moralistic stance, he has constantly been hounded by a past rape incident as well as allegations of coddling drug lords.
oh yeah. The rape incident issue. Tsk. I am an anti-RH and I am not happy that Sen. Sotto is our frontrunner in defending our stance.
the Pepsi Paloma rape issue primarily involved Vic Sotto and Joey de Leon. if it was all a publicity stunt or there was coercion involved, it was not cleared since there was an amicable settlement. The drug lords issue however is an exposive issue when unravelled.