Ethics complaint filed vs Pia Cayetano for plagiarism

Senator Pia Cayetano. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.NET FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – A plagiarism complaint was formally filed against Senator Pia Cayetano Wednesday afternoon with the Senate ethics committee.

The six-page complaint was filed by a certain Alberto Loquez Ong Jr., from Iligan City. The complaint alleged that Cayetano had twice plagiarised in her privilege speeches.

Ong’s complaint cited statements by a blogger named Elisa Sangalang https://pinoytemplars.blogspot.com who alleged Cayetano of failing to properly attribute her sources online in her privilege speeches on the Reproductive Health bill.

Sangalang said in her blog post https://pinoytemplars.blogspot.com/2012/08/pia-cayetano-look-who-plagiarized-too.html last August 19 that the first instance was in February 23, 2011 regarding Cayetano’s speech on traditional birth attendants.

She had allegedly lifted two paragraphs from a presentation by Health Undersecretary Mario Villaverde during a national health convention in April 2008 without attribution.

The second time, Cayetano’s speech on World Health Day last June 6, 2012 had contained a paragraph from the United Nations Environment Programme without attribution, Sangalang said.

“Senator Pia’s apparent plagiarism could probably be excused as a mere oversight at most or a careless mistake at the very least. But a woman of her stature and pedigree is definitely way beyond a mistake that could very well have been committed by an elementary pupil or a reckless high school student submitting a plagiarized term paper,” Sangalang said in the post.

Cayetano had previously replied on the matter via Twitter “Citing authors and sources is part of the writing process I am happy to do because it shows the depth of research done,” she had said.

“If at any time, I fail to attribute, I immediately make the necessary corrections and amends,” she said.

Ong said it was clear Cayetano violated the intellectual property rights.

Cayetano has yet to issue a statement regarding the ethics complaint filed Wednesday.

Senator Vicente Sotto III is also facing an ethics complaint over alleged plagiarism in his speeches on the Reproductive Health Bill.

The ethics committee, headed by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, is set to conduct a hearing Thursday to finalize their rules after which all the pending ethics complaints will be scheduled in a “first in, first out” basis.