Sotto's dilemma

We simply don’t understand why our friend Tito Sotto doesn’t just come out with an apology regarding the issue of plagiarism that first came out when he delivered the first part of his “Turno en Contra” speech outlining his opposition to the proposed Reproductive Health bill. In all likelihood, the Senator may not have been aware that some portions of the text were lifted from the entry of an American blogger. Technology has advanced in such a way that nowadays, people only have to Google a word and ‘voila!’ All kinds of related information and content appear on the screen.

That the issue continues to reverberate across the globe just goes to show the power of social media, the Net and everything that makes up the vast territory called cyberspace. Now there is this latest unfortunate debacle surrounding Tito Sotto’s third “Turno en Contra,” delivered in Tagalog this time, which has triggered an even bigger flood of blogs because the last portion sounded very much like one of Robert Kennedy’s speeches.

Unfortunately for Tito, it only takes a few tweets and a number of mouse clicks for the whole world to know — as many have seen in the case of Robert Blair Carabuena who became the subject of nasty jokes a few hours after a video showing Carabuena assaulting an MMDA traffic enforcer went viral.

In the case of Senator Sotto, the typical Filipino humor is now going around, like the word photocopy that should be “sottocopy,” with a few other Tagalog words that suggest the act of copying (like “sinotto” and “sottohan”) — which just adds more to Tito’s embarrassment especially with communication over cyberspace having become so widespread. New gadgets just keep on coming out, with such innovations like the iPad, tablets, smartphones and all kinds of things that make it easy to conclude that information technology, indeed, is mind boggling with its infinite possibilities.

Actually there is really nothing wrong with quoting somebody else’s words. This is something that many people, including columnists, regularly do. In fact, we usually use a quote and paraphrase it to fit whatever it is we are trying to say to emphasize a point — provided of course we give due credit to those who originally wrote it. (Although many of us occasionally make mistakes when we inadvertently fail to mention a source of reference.)

But what really made it look bad for Senator Sotto is the way the issue was handled. Obviously, Tito is the kind of guy who will defend his staff to death. But in this case, he shouldn’t take the bullet by himself when it is a well-known fact that Senate staff members usually draft speeches for their principals. Clearly, his people should have made sure that the Senator was not placed in an embarrassing situation. What compounded the whole issue was when one of his senior advisers resorted to sarcasm in replying to the blogger — instead of simply admitting that it was a mistake and be done with it. 

Nowadays people have to be careful with what they say because it can come back with a vengeance, especially with the power of the Internet that can magnify everything a million times over. From what I know about Tito, he is not the type who will deliberately plagiarize, which is why I think the ones who should really be taken to task are his speechwriters and assistants who picked up from the source and omitted failsafe words in the text — which is exactly what happened with a Supreme Court Associate Justice who failed to supply appropriate references for one of his decisions.

The desire to sound profound is admirable, and there really are people who have the natural ability — or are born with the gift — to convey their thoughts into reflective statements that hit a chord with readers/listeners. While there is no such thing as a crime of plagiarism in this country, it can be a big offense — not to mention an embarrassment — for one to try to sound profound and intelligent (or if you’re a speechwriter, make someone else sound profound and intelligent) when you know that you are deliberately deceiving people by borrowing words and passing it off as original — something which I can only surmise probably happened to Tito’s writers who knew this right from the start. They probably thought that translating Kennedy’s words into the vernacular would not be detected. So now we have a new word coined again courtesy of the typical Filipino wit and humor: Senator Sotto “taglarized,” not plagiarized. As it is, the awkward translation became a red flag that alerted a Netizen to Google a certain phrase that revealed “taglarized” portions.

Actually, there are those who have the talent to make profound statements and memorable sound bites in a funny way, like former president Joseph Estrada with his now famous “weather-weather lang yan” — an apt, catchy phrase that sums up the power changes that happen in politics. Today, it is being used by a network to report the weather. Like Erap, Tito Sotto has the natural ability to deliver good lines as seen in his lyrical gems “Dakilang Lahi” and “Magkaisa” — with the latter becoming the de facto “national anthem” of the first EDSA People Power Revolution.

Anyway, our unsolicited advice to our friend Tito Sotto is to stop shielding his researchers and speechwriters who obviously keep on making the same mistakes or worse, are deliberately making the mistakes. But when all is said and done, the buck ultimately stops with the Senator — who will not be thought of as a lesser man if he admitted the mistakes made and just move on. 

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