Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III was slapped with an ethics complaint for plagiarizing his speeches on the Reproductive Health bill.
The 22-page complaint was filed earlier today at the office of Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, head of the Ethics and Privileges committee.
The complainants were composed of 37 individuals, mostly academics and bloggers, led by Dr. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio of the University of the Philippines’ Center for Women, Antonio Contreras of the De La Salle University College of Liberal Arts and Ateneo de Manila Political Science Department director Lisandro Claudio.
In their complaint, the group said Sotto copied from blogs and writings of American blogger Sarah Pope, Marlon C. Ramirez, and Peter Engelman. They also accused him of lifting from the late US Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s 1966 “Day of Affirmation” speech.
The formal complaint stated that Sotto violated the Intellectual Property Code of Philippines, or RA 8293, and the Senate’s own ethics rules, Interaksyon.com reported.
