There oughta be a law on plagiarism—Enrile

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Concerned by allegations of plagiarism hounding two members of the chamber he leads, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Wednesday  proposed that senators craft a law that would ensure the intellectual property rights of bloggers.

It was a blogger, Sarah Pope of the United States, who accused Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III of lifting passages from her blog entry without attribution to support his arguments in a privilege speech against the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill.

“Perhaps, because of this experience … that we senators are copycats, perhaps, because of the need to clarify certain rules, let us propose a law and we would place there the rights of those who blog so that it would be clear,” Enrile said during the afternoon’s plenary session.

“Maybe there should be a law. We might want to study this and ask help from bloggers,” he added.

Enrile stood up after Sotto delivered a privilege speech to decry an alleged hatchet job against him by pro-RH advocates in the wake of the allegations of plagiarism.

“I could well be the first senator to become a victim of cyber-bullying. From blogs, Facebook and Twitter, I became the center of damaging and malicious attacks from different people, especially those who support the RH bill,” Sotto said.

Sotto said he wasn’t referring to Senator Pia Cayetano, the author of the RH health measure.

Cayetano has also been the subject of charges of plagiarism after she allegedly failed to attribute information in her speeches to the United Nations Environment Program and the Department of Health.

“Perhaps, this is part of [the pro-RH] strategy especially since they have millions in funds,” Sotto said.

“If you can’t kill the message, kill the messenger. It appears this is what my detractors are doing,” he added.

Sotto said he has yet to hear a response to his arguments against the RH bill such as that it goes against the Constitution that protects the rights of the unborn starting from conception, and that it would have adverse effects on the health of women.

In his speech, Sotto insisted he didn’t plagiarize because he had made it clear that what he was saying wasn’t his own but was based on research.