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!
it’s really more fun in the Philippines..:)
I think this situation is enough for everyone to learn a lesson– that plagiarism is dangerous to one’s image especially if you are assuming like you are the most intelligent person in your field.
Sen. Sotto should realized that everything is easy to find in the internet. Why did he deny it? in the first place the respectable senator cannot blame anyone of his staff for such slip because he read it and review it before he started doing ‘his scene’ in the senate. Too bad…:(
Anyway thanks Sarah you’ve got a nice blog and this surely helps every woman to decide on whether to continue using a pill or not. God Bless
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/270179/news/nation/sotto-aide-takes-blame-but-denies-plagiarism-says-blogs-meant-to-be-shared
excerpt:
Villacorta defended his and his staff’s actions, saying that there is no law covering blogs, and therefore copying from them isn’t considered plagiarism.
“There is no jurisprudence, there is no privacy law, even if she wants to press charges. I already talked to a lawyer from New York. Even in the US, there is no legislation,” Villacorta said.
oh my.
saang law school galing ito?!?!
im sorry pero ang sarap niyang batuhin ng intellectual property code!!!
from the article:
“Hindi naman copyrighted ang blogs kasi,” he explained, adding that he was tasked by the senator to speak about the issue on his behalf. “If they can show that it’s verbatim, and they’re the source [that’s when it might be plagiarism]. Pero hindi copyrighted, so there’s no infringement.”
from the law:
Sec. 172. Literary and Artistic Works. –
172.1 Literary and artistic works, hereinafter referred to as “works”, are original intellectual creations in the literary and artistic domain protected from the moment of their creation and shall include in particular:
(a) Books, pamphlets, articles and other writings; X X X
*double facepalm*
but no!!! look at this…
they can actually get away with it.. and it’s so infuriating because it implicates academic works as well… haaay…. like i said.. a million facepalms ( i don’t know how that is possible…)
Nan..hahahaha maka comment kamo feeling nyo kmo ang madefend sa senado..wahahahahah
Hi Sarah,
I hope this issue, more than confirming how stupid our politicians are, assured you well that the rest of the population are not just intelligent but are as well sharp and are progressive thinkers. I apologize that your entry were lifted and twisted to suit not even an advocacy but more likely his political ambition. Myself and many of the active political watchers have decided to simply call him Sotto, as we believe he doesn’t deserve respect in his position as Senator. He’s not making any sense or logic.
Thanks for being very prompt, for addressing the women of our country and for being cool and feisty, you have definitely gained the respect and love of Filipinos! Mabuhay!
Our politicians are not stupid (as for Senator Sotto, I’m not sure.) They just believe they can get away with anything. 😀
Come now people. We all know how things work when it comes to these speech/articles of prominent people, no matter where you are in the world. If successful, they claim full credit for it. If issues like plagiarism, poor grammar, etc. arise they say the writers did it. But when there is no problem, you always find the PREPARED BY: NAME OF LYING PROMINENT PERSON on it. And this has been religiously practiced by many. Only thing is, instead of Sotto following the trend of naturally putting the blame on his writers (I also detest this part.), he tried to break tradition by first claiming innocence. Then when caught completely red-handed, trying to make inexcusable excuses.
Sorry for being a bit off topic, but why do i have a feeling that Ana Lynna Sandoval is some kind of troll?
She keeps on insisting that Sarah is PRO-RH and that she is the person who should make it known to everyone that the Pill has NO negative side-effects. This is is after the author/blogger has clearly stated her stance on the issue– that the pill DOES have side effects but she supports the right to have an educated choice.
If you read Ana’s comments closely, you will certainly realize that she is driven, coherent, and writes her statements like she is purposely baiting the author as well as the readers.
I won’t be surprised if she is doing this so that she can quote Sarah and tell the real pro-rh folks, “See, your iconic-figure-of-the-moment denies supporting you. Stop deluding yourself!”
Ana Lynna Sandoval (who has usernames like that?) I do not believe you are Pro-RH.
You are also not as clever as you think you are.
Stop feeding the troll, people :-/
If you’ve read Sarah’s comments previously (can’t copy-paste here, unfortunately, but read through the comments), she has implied that women should be informed of the consequences of the pill, but the choice to use it should not be taken away. She is, in essence, pro-choice.
If you read my comment carefully, i said “she supports the right to have an educated choice.” so i don’t understand your reply.
1. fact: sarah did not declare that she is pro-RH BILL
1. false claim: but ana lynna sandoval stated that she is.
2. fact: sarah said the pill has side effects.
2. false claim: ana lynna sandoval said it was sarah who is saying that the pill has NO negative side effects.
ana said sarah should be the voice of the truth because anti-RH bill people are lying (claiming that the pill has neg side effects).
by having this type of “supporter”, the cause is being discredited.
by egging sarah on with these type of false claims, sarah can actually speak out and reiterate facts 1&2.
if that happens, the anti-RH people can use that as proof that sarah AGREES with them (pill has neg side effects)
that’s why i said i don’t believe ana is pro-RH. if you didn’t get my point, nevermind.
i’m just saying, ana lynna sandoval can be indeed pro-RH who doesn’t read very well. or she’s a poser who is trying to get material to use against the RH bill supporters.
You’ve said it better! Yes that’s what i have noticed since last night. Shes actually not a pro-RH by the way she comments here. What she desbis reverse psychology
All I can say is that Senator Tito Sotto is a thief. He even denied it at first and also blame it all in his staff and that makes him a irresponsible senator being not able to know or ask where the speech written came from
Sotto’s Speeches: All Were Copied!
http://dalubhasangpinoy.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/sottos-speeches-all-were-copied/
Hi… It was so nice to hear that you would like to visit our country in the future…
and I wanted to apologize on what happened to your blog. It was used in a “Intellectual Debate” by our lawmakers. Just to give you heads up, ONLY FEW of our LAWMAKERS is knowledgeable by LAW…
Anyway, at least you have you have new readers and followers on your blog in ASIA, particularly in the Philippines.. 🙂
I disagree. The lawyers in our country who commit the worst types of crimes/activities to gain advantage are those who are the best when it comes taws, policies, etc. They are really good at finding loopholes to get what they want. Problem is, as they think they are above the law and thus commit unlawful acts, they sometimes put themselves in situations that the so-called loopholes no longer exist. It’s kind of ironic. Don’t forget what happened to our deposed SCJ. He’s a typical example of those who believe they have become above the law.