4. MANUEL "MANNY" V. PANGILINAN’S
SECONDHAND SPIELS
Businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan tendered his
irrevocable resignation as chair of the Ateneo de
Manila University (AdMU) board of trustees after it
was found that portions of the commencement
speeches that he delivered at the school’s
graduation rites in March that year were copied
from the speeches of celebrities like J.K. Rowling,
Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, and Conan O’Brien.
To be fair, Pangilinan was not directly at fault. His
speechwriters were responsible for the plagiarism.
5. Pangilinan apologized to the university and to the
2010 graduating class for giving a speech that had
been borrowed from certain other graduation
speeches.
The AdMU board of trustees initially didn’t want to
accept Pangilinan’s resignation. However, they had
no choice but to let him go. To this day, everyone’s
still wondering who exactly wrote those plagiarized
speeches.
7. SENATOR TITO SOTTO’S SERIAL
PLAGIARISM
Senator Tito Sotto’s turno en contra speech on the
reproductive health (RH) bill was allegedly copied
from an online blog without proper attribution.
8. They stuck to their battlecry that they had done
nothing wrong even when it was revealed that they
had also plagiarized the posts of at least two more
bloggers (Peter C. Engelman and Janice
Formichella), as well as the late U.S. Senator Robert
Kennedy. Throughout it all, Sotto remained
unapologetic. Whatever apology he issued didn’t ring
true and netizens gave him hell for it.
There were groups who signed petitions to have Sotto
removed from the Senate, but their wish wasn’t
granted. As Sotto pointed out, plagiarism wasn’t
considered a crime. He even implied that everyone
else was doing the same thing anyway.
12. ASSOCIATE JUSTICE MARIANO DEL
CASTILLO’S REHASHED DECISION
In July 2010, Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo
was the subject of an exposé done
by Newsbreak. They alleged that numerous parts of
Del Castillo’s decision on the case involving World
War II comfort women were copied from three
materials written by legal experts abroad and that
the said authors were not properly attributed. An
impeachment complaint was then filed against him
over the incident.
13. Majority's ruling
Ten of the Supreme Court's 15-member bench voted
to clear Del Castillo.
AND Accepted Associate Justice Mariano del
Castillo's alibi that he did not have "malicious intent
to appropriate another's work as his own.”
Though his plagiarism was exposed, Del Castillo
was not charged with any crime. He is still one of the
associate justices of the Supreme Court.
14. In a strongly-worded dissenting opinion made
public by the newest member of the Supreme
Court, Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno has
criticized her colleagues and said that the Court
would unfortunately be remembered as the Court
that made 'malicious intent' an indispensable
element of plagiarism and that made computer-
keying errors an exculpatory fact in charges of
plagiarism, without clarifying whether its ruling
applies only to situations of judicial decision-making
or to other written intellectual activity.
15.
16. DECEMBER 2010
ATTY. MARVIC LEONEN
UP College of Law Dean
November 2012, appointed as an
associate justice of the Supreme Court
Youngest appointee since 1938.
Leonen was then just 49 years old
17. THE ACCUSATION
Atty. Marvic Leonen was accused of plagiarizing
parts of an article he wrote for the Journal of the
Integrated Bar of the Philippines. A group of
lawyers-who called themselves the Philippine
Social Justice Foundation (Philjust)-claimed that the
article, which was published in 2004, had segments
that "used original source material without proper
attribution."
18. THE RESPONSE
A GMA News Online report noted: "Leonen
acknowledged that he failed to supply at least two
attributions in the article titled ’Weaving Worldviews:
Implications of Constitutional Challenges to the
Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997.’ The materials
that Leonen borrowed were from the American law
professor Owen Lynch’s dissertation and "friend of the
court" brief co-written with Romina Picolotti." At the time,
Lynch was a visiting professor at the UP College of Law.
In December 2010, UP College of Law Dean Atty.
Marvic Leonen submitted his resignation letter to UP
Diliman Chancellor Sergio Cao.
19. THE AFTERMATH
Leonen’s students and colleagues lauded him for
owning up to his supposedly inadvertent plagiarism.
He went on to serve as Dean of UP College of Law
until June 2011. In November 2012, Leonen was
appointed an associate justice of the Supreme
Court, the youngest appointee since 1938. Leonen
was then just 49 years old.
22. THE ACCUSATION
: In November 2010, barely a week after the
Department of Tourism (DOT) unveiled its "Pilipinas
kay ganda (Philippines so beautiful)" campaign,
people were enraged by its logo.
Blogger Spanky Hizon Enriquez, pointed out that
the logo was similar to the one used in Poland’s
tourism campaign. It wasn’t clear who was to blame
for the copied logo, as Campaigns and Grey, the
advertising agency involved in the project said their
role was only "in an advisory capacity."
23.
24. THE RESPONSE
DOT Undersecretary Vicente "Enteng" Romano III
was in charge of the agency’s planning and
promotions section. He took full responsibility for
the "Pilipinas kay ganda" fiasco and subsequently
resigned from his post.
25.
26. THE AFTERMATH
The "Pilipinas kay ganda" campaign was replaced
by the "It’s more fun in the Philippines" campaign,
which had its own share of controversy.
28. THE ACCUSATION
the Department of Tourism (DOT) "It’s more fun in
the Philippines" campaign had replaced the
battered "Pilipinas kay ganda" campaign. But, it
wasn’t long before people were also slamming it for
ripping off a 1951 Swiss tourism slogan that read,
"It's more fun in Switzerland."
29.
30. THE RESPONSE
DOT Secretary Ramon Jimenez, Jr. was unfazed by
controversy over the slogan or tagline. He said it
was "purely coincidental." Instead, he and his team
worked to make the campaign viral. For some
reason, people were more forgiving with this fun
campaign. Or maybe they were still weary from
getting enraged over "Pilipinas kay ganda."
36. THE ACCUSATION
A man named Alberto Loquez Ong Jr. filed an
ethics complaint against Cayetano for alleged
plagiarism in her speeches.
Ong was pertaining to the plagiarism allegations
that were raised before by a blogger named Elisa
Sangalang.
Sangalang alleged that Cayetano copied parts of
her speech on “The Status of the Philippines in
Achieving the Millennium Development Goals” and
her privilege speech on the World Environment
Day.
37. THE RESPONSE
Cayetano said in one of her tweets that she
respects and practices attributions in her Senate
speeches and if at any time, she fails to attribute,
she immediately make the necessary corrections
and amends.
She likewise said that in the two alleged plagiarism
cases against her, her staff just encountered
"technical glitches" and the footnotes failed to
appear on her website.
39. THE ACCUSATION
CDO processed meat company was ordered by the
trademark agency to stop using its green-and-red
"Pista" ham packaging and signage for being
confusingly similar to San Miguel Purefoods'
"Fiesta" holiday ham.
40. Purefoods accused CDO of Plagiarism for:
Using the “Pista” brand which sounds like their
own brand “Fiesta” for their processed ham.
Using red and green colors in packaging.
Purefoods had maintained that it had been using the
Fiesta brand since 1980, way ahead of CDO.
41.
42.
43. THE RESPONSE
CDO, on the other hand, countered that while it had
started marketing its Yuletide ham under the Pista
brand only in 2006, the names Fiesta and Pista are
not only both generic but are also spelled
differently.
Besides, the use of red and green colors in
packaging has always been associated with
Christmas, and was never trademarked for the
exclusive use of Purefoods, CDO said, adding that
there are three other brands that market their ham
with the word "Fiesta", such as Aro Fiesta Ham,
Royal Fiesta and Puregold Fiesta Ham.
44. THE DECISION
Director-General Ricardo Blancaflor of the Intellectual
Property Office released a decision in favor of the
Purefoods Company.
What tipped the case in favor of Purefoods, according to
Blancaflor, was CDO's having launched in 2009 a "Make
Christmas even more special" advertising campaign that
was eerily similar to Purefoods' ongoing "Dapat ganito
ka-espesyal" campaign.
In addition, CDO has since packaged its ham in paper
bags with dimensions and colors that were "confusingly
similar" to Purefoods, the head of the trademark agency
said.
45. Director-General Ricardo Blancaflor of the
Intellectual Property Office ordered the seizure of
the Pista ham labels, signs, prints, cartons and
wrappers.
Blancaflor also fined CDO P100,000 - rejecting as
unsubstantiated the claim of Purefoods that it lost at
least P27. 6 million in unrealized income because
of the copycat packaging - and another P300,000 in
lawyer's fees.
46. SOURCES:
Copycat Nation: 10 High-Profile Plagiarism Cases in the Philippines
Oct 2, 2013
http://www.spot.ph/newsfeatures/54502/copycat-nation-10-high-profile-plagiarism-cases-in-
the-philippines
Pia Cayetano also faces ethics complaint for alleged plagiarism
Published November 21, 2012 5:03pm
By KIMBERLY JANE TAN, GMA News
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/283223/news/nation/pia-cayetano-also-faces-
ethics-complaint-for-alleged-plagiarism
Pia Cayetano faces plagiarism case
Rappler.com
Published 6:10 PM, November 21, 2012
Updated 7:58 PM, November 21, 2012
http://www.rappler.com/nation/62747-pia-cayetano-dap-funded-projects
Pia Cayetano: Research, not plagiarism
By: Cathy C. Yamsuan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
01:44 AM August 22nd, 2012
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/255130/pia-cayetano-research-not-plagiarism
Sen. Pia says alleged plagiarism due to 'technical glitch'
Published August 23, 2012 3:25pm
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/270901/news/nation/sen-pia-says-alleged-
plagiarism-due-to-technical-glitch
47. THE LIST: 5 most talked about plagiarism scandals in PH
ABS-CBN News
Posted at Aug 20 2012 05:15 PM | Updated as of Aug 21 2012
08:08 PM
http://news.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/08/20/12/list-5-most-talked-
about-plagiarism-scandals-ph
Justice's plagiarism case recalls one by Filipino paper
WRITTEN BY ANTONIO C. CAMPO
http://www.filipinoreporter.us/editorials/piece-of-cake/229-
justices-plagiarism-case-recalls-one-by-filipino-paper.html
Filipino Reporter 2010
SC clears Justice Mariano del Castillo in plagiarism mess
Published October 15, 2010 3:07pm
By SOPHIA DEDACE, GMANews.TV
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/203492/news/nation/s
c-clears-justice-mariano-del-castillo-in-plagiarism-mess
48. THE LIST: 5 most talked about plagiarism scandals in PH
ABS-CBN News
Posted at Aug 20 2012 05:15 PM | Updated as of Aug 21 2012
08:08 PM
http://news.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/08/20/12/list-5-most-talked-
about-plagiarism-scandals-ph
SC justice: Ruling on plagiarism case to set a bad precedent
Published October 18, 2010 11:24pm
By SOPHIA DEDACE, GMANews.TV
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/203745/news/nation/s
c-justice-ruling-on-plagiarism-case-to-set-a-bad-precedent
Del Castillo accused of 32 counts of plagiarism – lawyer
By Jay Ruiz, ABS-CBN News
Posted at Feb 14 2012 04:41 PM | Updated as of Feb 15 2012
06:47 AM
http://news.abs-cbn.com/nation/02/14/12/del-castillo-
accused-32-counts-plagiarism-lawyer
