by ABS-CBN
When it rains, it pours -- at least for Senator Vicente "Tito" Sotto III, who is accused yet again by another American blogger of plagiarizing her work in his campaign against the reproductive health (RH) bill in the Philippines.
Janice Formichella, who writes for the "Ms." magazine, said Sotto "lifted entire passages from a post I wrote for Feminists For Choice and twisted them into an anti-choice argument against an important reproductive rights bill in the country."
Formichella, who owns a small business in New York City, said she was surprised when her 2-year-old blog post was used without attribution by Sotto.
"The piece that Sotto plagiarizes discusses Indian nationalist leader Mohandas Gandhi’s little-known sexism, and though he misconstrues my argument it’s ironic that he chose this particular piece, as it aptly reflects his own hypocrisy as a political leader," she said.
According to award-winning Filipino novelist Miguel Syjuco, Sotto lifted verbatim and without attribution a part of Formichella's 2010 blog post.
Sotto's speech on August 15, 2012, as delivered:
Kasi po, the two activists met in December of 1936--iyan po ang litrato nila--when Sanger traveled to India to speak with Gandhi about birth control, population and the plight of women in India. Kinakabahan sila noon na palaki nang palaki at padami nang padami ang population ng India.
Despite the fact that the movement was gaining popularity in a society with a serious poverty crisis--ganoon noong araw sa India--Gandhi was an outspoken critic of artificial birth control. His general attitude was that:
"Persons who use contraceptives will never learn the value of self-restraint. They will not need it. Self-indulgence with contraceptives may prevent the coming of children but will sap the vitality of both men and women, perhaps more of men than of women. It is unmanly to refuse battle with the devil."
Formichella's "Gandhi’s birth control of choice" on February 5, 2010:
The two activists met in 1936 when Sanger traveled to India to speak with Gandhi about birth control. By that time Sanger was advocating internationally for artificial contraceptives and sought to make Gandhi an ally.
Despite the fact that the movement was gaining popularity in a society with a serious poverty crisis, Gandhi was an outspoken critic of artificial birth control. His general attitude was that
“Persons who use contraceptives will never learn the value of self-restraint. They will not need it. Self-indulgence with contraceptives may prevent the coming of children but will sap the vitality of both men and women, perhaps more of men than of women. It is unmanly to refuse battle with the devil.â€
Formichella said to make matters worse, Sotto twisted her pro-choice stand to argue his claims against the RH bill.
"Given the content of my post and my very pro-contraception position, I could hardly understand how my words could be used to argue against reproductive rights. But lo and behold, it turns out that entire segments of my post were used by Sotto, albeit put into an anti-choice context. What’s more, he has oddly used the words of several other bloggers, writers and case studies in his speeches," she said, citing an ABS-CBNNews.com story.
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