The Fat Man Today

This will be a short post, and will probably be a very opinionated one at that, so caveat emptor and all that jazz. Today is the first of October, and we have two more days to storm the Supreme Court with our prayers. There are proper avenues of complaint, and if everyone were to try to show their displeasure with the law, there’s a small chance – small, but a chance is a chance – that we can make a difference.

I had something else lined up for today, but man, the news has been buzzing nonstop since the other week, and I just can’t help it. For those of you with short patience: this is a long read, so pop some popcorn in the microwave, we’re going to be in for a long ride. Senator Vicente Sotto’s legal team has a big problem. During the morning of August 23, 2012, Hector Villacorta said, during a breakfast meeting with the press, the following: “Copying is a common practice. Why do you need to think of a brand-new measure when a good one that was not enacted already exists?” as evidenced in this article on the Philippine Daily Inquirer . To his defense, Miriam Defensor-Santiago states that plagiarism really isn’t that big of a deal in the Senate, which can be read on this ABS-CBN news article . But that’s where it gets tricky. And this is the root of all of Villacorta’s problems.

The past week, we Filipinos were treated to another show of dualities. In just the span of seven (give or take a few) days, the two types of public servants we are forced to live with were brought to the limelight in two equally tragic events. I speak of the deconstruction of Senator Vicente Sotto III’s turno en contra speech against the RH Bill, and the plane crash of DILG Secretary Jesse Manalastas Robredo.