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!
Thank you for this, Sarah! 🙂 We pro-RH Bill supporters in the Philippines appreciate this very much. 🙂
People of the philippines, you really need to vote wisely or your country will always be in a shithole. Stop voting for celebrities as they are there because they dont have careers in showbiz anymore and they only want exposure to revive their careers. In the end, you all lose.
i remember what my mom told me while we were waiting in line during the elections. She told me that she’s gonna vote for PNoy because she knew a lot of people voting for him. At that moment when she told me that, i want to shout at her for being so ignorant. I felt sad because i knew my mom wasn’t the only one doing this during the elections. I’m not sure if you already knew that this has happened before. During the elections wherein J. Ejercito won the presidency. He is also an actor here in the Phils. I think his status being an actor made him win the elections back then. so sad 🙁
As much as the people want to, at least based from those who took the time to give intelligent and worthwhile comments not just here but everywhere else in the WWW, these same people, and I’d like to think I may perhaps belong to this group, sadly we are but a minority. Most of the those who make up the majority of votes have not even reached college or perhaps high school. I am fortunate that my parents was able to give me proper education but many, and millions here are not. I am not belittling anyone, but as what Feanne keeps on reiterating on her comments, the level of poverty here is unbelievable-if we are to logically think how rich the Philippines is! Natural resources? Strategic country location? Admit it or not, but many foreign folks envy the potential our country could offer! We just cant go forward because we are dragged down by a minority of individuals who wants all of these for themselves. Shameful and sad that these politicians twist and can easily “persuade” these “market” for their own gain. It is very demoralizing when you come to realize that most politicians here live in vast contrast from those people who elected them.
Although I realize that from the article Ms. Sarah had wrote, the topic had gone off very far from which the article intends, I had to press on that this topic had touched many, many aspects that cannot be ignored. By now, I’m sure Ms. Sarah had realized how passionate Filipinos can be when it comes to their, my country; how we live, what we for hope and aspirations. We have this innate pride that becomes both our positive and negative trait. Hats off to you Ms Sarah for taking this in, and being so cool under fire, yet positive and warm in acknowledging that one person ( or his staff for this matter ) do not share the same thinking and beliefs. Understanding the fact that one person shouldn’t embody everybody else, no matter if that person holds a public office.
As what someone here commented earlier, unfortunately, Ms. Sarah, you will definitely become a part of this spectacle, and will be dragged on. Yet forgive me in saying this but, It is however, fortunate for us that it was you. Why? Two things: because for a non-Filipino to take stand against a behemoth authority for fighting rights and yet not take it against the rest of us. And second, I hope you do what should be right; because in this way you not only stand up for the twisting of information that Filipinos should know about but also in fighting plagiarism and standing for everybody in the world who blogs.
Thank you for being in this vast space of the web and bless you Ms. Sarah
~julie
well written and conveyed. Hats off sarah!
Thank you very much for standing-up and letting people know your view about this piece of legislation. I’m not a lawyer nor a doctor all I know i that the bill is all about giving us a choice. We need to be responsible with our choices. Again, thank you for clarifiying this issue and please stand your ground the good senator might invoke your good nature just to clean his name. Please continue to support our struggle for freedom of choice Godspeed!
Good day Sarah! Recently they admitted their fault. Nevermind Sotto, he’s just one of those “artist-politician” in the Philippines who is expert in reading “scripts” instead of making one themselves. 🙂
Longlive and Godbless.
Hi Sarah,
These people commenting and giving you support belong to a very small group of Filipinos who actually know the meaning of the word ‘plagiarism’. The majority who voted for the senator I’m sure doesn’t understand the issue.
The people here can’t accept the fact that plagiarism has long been part of our history. Media is blowing this up real good. Thanks to twitter, it served as a great tool to show the bandwagon effect typical for Filipinos.
http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2012/08/senator-tito-sottos-act-of-plagiarism-merely-reflects-the-character-of-the-people-who-voted-for-him/
Don’t worry, we are experts in “ningas-kugon”.
Stupid Pinoy.
hey, on behalf of all the flips here. i would like to apologize for what the butthurt senator has done
Sarah,
I hope all is well! On behalf of the Filipino people i would like to apologize for the actions of our ignorant Senator. I totally agree that all people should have the right to choose and the right to have an option. Please do not think that all Filipinos way of thinking are like those of our misguided senator. He does not represent the entirety of the population. He is a passionate opposition, i give him that. But in no way do we the people condone his actions.
I would also like to apologize for the poor way the “apology” comment posted by a numb skull attorney Villacorta. I guess birds of the same feather do flock together. If you are in our neck of the woods please feel free to visit our country. It’s more fun here in the Philippines!
Respectfully Yours,
David from Manila
thank you sarah for taking time to respond to this. i apologize on behalf of the filipino people for the actions of our senator.
Sarah,
I am a Filipino, I have been watching the news and got intrigue by our senators speech,
I have never imagined and with all honesty the first time I saw and heard something like this.
The Word is “Verbatim”. He could have paraphrase it or simple since this is a fact use it as a source not claim it as his own.
I am very sorry for my country that we have someone from high office who would do something like this and justify it by denying.
^ wow look at that compilation…what’s that supposed to do? Could you at least make a comment that you yourself wrote? It’s another copy-paste thing! Well ok, at least you cited your sources whoever they may be :p