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!
My dear new friend Sarah,
First of all, I would just like to say I admire you and your posts ate incredibly informative and helpful. I am Zane and I am from the Philippines. I am not really that much in to politics but I wish to assure you that many of the people of the Philippines support you on this issue, and yes, you can count me in.
Like I said, I am not that interested with issues concerning politicians but I am very much concerned about the issue that is being discussed as to why in the first place, our stupid senator used your words as his own. The issue about the Reproductive Health Bill in the Philippines is very complex and I believe that given the chance for it to be approved, it can help a lot of people progress and also get progressive results on the government’s aim to achieve zero HIV in our country.
I admire how you set yourself free from the stupid senator’s selfish intentions when he used your blog on his speech.
The Filipino people are behind you. Keep it up Sarah!
Z
hahaha! I just watch this on abscbn news. 🙂 kinda curious!
This is really EMBARRASSING. Ms. Sarah, we apologize for this circus. He’s one of those senators who got elected because of his fame as a celebrity, as an actor. You see, a large number of voters are from the masses, those who were deprived of good education and are easily influenced by stupid flashy campaigns.
Ugh. I hate that the whole nation is being dragged into this.
The contradicting opinions about RH bill… They’ve actually been arguing about these issues for a very long time… very long, indeed. And it just gets…. I simply want to see the end really.
Sen. Sotto definitely made a terrible mistake of plagiarizing. And now the credibility of his stance regarding the RH Bill is being shaken to the core. For my own part, I think that providing health services to everyone is a big yes! Be it a man or a woman or a child.
But, I fear that too much of anything (like independence) can have its own pitfalls. Hypothetically, if I give a daughter the independence she demands, the independence to have sex with whoever she pleases and whenever, I might send the idea that she can avoid the consequences of her actions. If I provide that independence to a mother, it may seem fine. But the bill has no marital status. It does not differentiate a married from a single person. I fear that I teach a daughter that she can get away with a very natural phenomenon such as pregnancy. There will always be consequences to our actions. Why can’t we just leave it at that?
I am also afraid of this term “isang pagkakamali” Yesterday or probably the other day… I was listening to Ms. Korina Sanchez’s radio program, and there was a guest with 10 children and she used the word “pagkakamali” (when referring to the birth of the children) and the funny part is the mother also agreed! If my mom ever calls me a mistake I swear I’ll tell her… “Nagpakasarap sarap ka tapos isisisi mo sakin yang ginawa mo?”
Anyway, I just hope that even just a little bit we can try to look at children as gifts, if not a miracle. Because seriously, not everyone can bear a child. Not everyone. And please stop looking at Filipinos as liabilies and dead baggages…. may silbi ang mga tao. Eh kung ang government magpapasa ng law na mula daycare hanggang pag PhD all expense paid by the taxpayers, willing ako na magsipag sa pagbabayad ng tax ko, edukasyon yan ehh…
Note to readers: I know a good number of the writers here bash those with grammatical and typographical errors… I just hope you can look more at the content and less on the form. Thanks.
Dear Sarah,
Sotto is a dumb corrupt POLITICIAN who would rather encourage STEALING (anything) than to encourage the use of contraceptives. He is one of those people who is to be blamed why our country is below poverty line. So if I were you, do not hesitate to file a law suit. He deserves it.
I hope you take legal actions. These people need to be taught, need to be humbled.
Showbiz & politics in the philippines suckssssss
i still hope that you take legal actions.
Sarah, why dont you just shut up! we filipinos would like to move on from sen. sotto’s plagiarism issue. so please dont comment anything anymore. leave this issue. you wont get anything from this. people will forget you after one week. so dont feel like you are the most important person in this world.
uhm tsong… wait lang.
Nag-comment lang naman siya once.
The rest of this kerfluffle is basically made up of us Filipinos. Di na kasama si Miss Sarah dito.
I almost choked on my ice cream after seeing the word “Esteemed senator”