The Tito Sotto Plagiarism Controversy refers to an issue involving Filipino actor-turned-senator Vicente "Tito" Sotto regarding some of his recent speeches being plagiarised from a blog entry by Sarah Pope, an American home economist blogger, and more recently, Robert Kennedy’s South Africa speech, to which it was delivered verbatim by the senator.
Tito Sotto
Vicente “Tito” Castelo Sotto III (born August 24, 1948) is an actor, musician, television personality, and politician in the Philippines. He was especially known for his film and television appearances alongside his brother Vic Sotto and Joey de Leon. He along with de Leon and Vic, appeared as co-hosts in the noontime show Eat Bulaga.
Controversy
Sotto was accused of plagiarism in 2012 when it was found out that his recent speeches criticising the Reproductive Health Bill were lifted from Pope’s blog entry “How The Pill Can Harm Your Future Child’s Health” He asserted that he was “actually” quoting Natasha Campbell-McBride who was referenced in the blog post. It was, however, pointed out by some users that McBride was a fringe “scientist” who believed that autism, among other things, was caused by gut bacteria.
Sarah Pope later decried Sotto on the controversy upon learning about the allegedly unattributed quote. She later remarked in an interview on the Philippine newscast The World Tonight that the senator was “acting as though he’s above the law, that he is above copyright law” and that Filipinos should “think about this” during the next elections.
The issue further escalated in September when it was found out by Twitter user Michel Eldiy that Sotto’s closing speech was taken verbatim (albeit merely translated in Tagalog) from a speech made by Robert F. Kennedy in 1966:
Reaction
Lulz ensured on Philippine social media soon after the speech’s origin was discovered, with users on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere humorously criticising the senator, plastering images of him on image macros, or juxtaposing him on various photoshopped images for effect:
