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!
I am a Filipino and I love the Philippines and my fellow Filipinos, but this actuation coming from a senator is totally shameful. Unfortunately, my country is just like any other belonging to the third world where politicians are voted based on popularity and not credibility and the thinking, hard-working middle class has the least discernible voice during elections.
I still love it here though…it’s more fun in the Philippines!
Sincere apologies in behalf of our arrogant senator. This is not the first. Even one of our SC justices committed plagiarism and was able to get away with it on the ground that there was no malice. Embarrassing.
Miss Sarah,
Nice job going straightforward. 🙂
Apparently, here in the Philippines, some public figures are acting too strange, and others are never admitting to it. The news here today is somewhat alarming to me even at a younger age because I’m a teen.
I really appreciate what you did there, because he might swallow his pride over what he did to your blog. Maybe he thinks plagiarism is for only for students, but hell no. Everyone should avoid or should not do that. That is stealing-caught-in-the-act, and that should be penalized.
Great job there, Miss Sarah.
Awhile ago on a certain national news program, the senator’s team said that though they did get those infos from your blog, they can still very well use them because the internet is a “public domain.” What they have said might be true but I was outraged by it because it was you who thought of those words, and it was you who typed them into the world wide web. in my opinion, that blog is your intellectual property. from what I have learned in the subject thesis writing (which all 4-year courses here in the Philippines have) copying to at least 5 words from a source without any kind of acknowledgement is plagiarism and that is from ANY source, from books down to the use of electronic media including the internet. We were taught that if the information was taken from the net, one has to include the name of the author/blogger and the date the site was posted (copyright), or if there is none, at least site the url. I cannot believe that his team said such things when they are graduates from prestigious colleges and universities here, how could they not know about it? If I may add, writing a thesis is the ticket to graduation, so it is natural that they should know about these things. If they would say that they are not updated about the new trend, then that’s just lame. As an old saying goes, “IGNORANCE OF THE LAW EXCUSES NO ONE.”
I would also like to emphasize the fact that he’s an actor turned senator, so that side show of his just made my eyes roll.
to you ms. sarah.. I admire your straightforwardness..
well an actor turned politician will always be an actor.. tears and all are a nice touch.. it has been well played.. sympathy votes thats what’s he’s banking on..
miss sarah,
we have a saying here in the philippines that goes ‘a thief caught in the act of stealing will never admit that he is stealing’. right now that is what senator sotto is doing in the broadcast media. anyway thank you for calling him for what he really is. a lying thief.
respectfully,
Considering that the said senator holds bloggers in low esteem, and that he plagiarized a blogger, I wonder what kind of esteem he has for himself?
Guess what today’s local headlines are? The said Senator insists he did not plagiarize and dares anyone to sue him. I hope Sarah takes that dare. The evidence is just so obvious. We have a lawmaker who knows shit nothing about the law. Damn my stupid neighbors for insisting to vote for comedians/action stars/sports stars(no offense to Arnold Schwartzwhatever).
Hi Sarah nice to meet you ! Sorry for meeting you this way but I am glad you stood up to the staff who did not sound sorry at all with the letter she sent you. Anyway, I am for the Reproductive Health Bill and I do know that pills and other birth control options have consequences but I also believe it is the right of every women to make her on choice on when to use such or not.
Being a Catholic dominated country our country leaders believe that it is a sin to use birth control natural or artificial and this is a very uneducated way of teaching our countrymen in the Philippines. I am for the Reproductive Health Bill and I stated this in my blog.
I’ve always liked Senator Sotto I’ve known him since I was in grade school it was just shameful that his writer made this horrible mistake and he was standing up for his people whom I guess he did not know plagiarized. If his writer admited what she did the Senator would have been a bit humble. I did not like the crying in the Senate though, Sotto was a former actor by the way and he is still an entertainment noontime tv show host , he was showing his talent. I don’t buy the crying by the way.
Dear Miss Sara,
I am sorry that until now our own Senator not only despise us as a blogger is still haven’t sent you an apology for the word that he steals from your blog. And despite from this whole controversial instead of just admitting his mistakes he tries to correct it and justify his act just to be on the right side.