Senator Sotto Did It Again!

I believe that Senator Vicente Sotto III should by now now fire his chief of staff. That should be the wisest action from a government official who’s gotten so embroiled in public controversy due to incompetence of a member of staff not once, but twice in a row, and still threatening to repeat.

Hector Villacorta is once more nowhere in sight in ensuring that the senator would not commit another embarrassing hullaballoo in public’s view. Now the senator did it again. Or perhaps Mr. Villacorta is really asking for it. Like he is so mad that he doesn't care about public relations for the senator and intentionally irritates their detractors.

Just after delivering the last part of his speech defending his controverting stance on the RH Bill, a tweet from certain Michel Eldiy had confirmed that once again, the senator committed another form of inteleectual dishonesty.

The last part of his speech was uncannily similar to Robert Kennedy’s “Day of Affirmation” speech that the American senator had given in South Africa in 1966.

This is the end part of Senator Sotto’s speech yesterday:

“Iilan ang magiging dakila sa pagbali ng kasaysayan, subalit bawat isa sa atin ay maaaring kumilos, gaano man kaliit, para ibahin ang takbo ng mga pangyayari. Kapag pinagsama-sama ang ating munting pagkilos, makalilikha tayo ng totalidad na magmamarka sa kabuuan ng kasaysayan ng henerasyong ito. Ang mga hindi-mabilang na iba’t ibang galaw ng katapangan at paninindigan ang humuhubog sa kasaysayan ng sangkatauhan. Tuwing naninindigan tayo para sa isang paniniwala, tuwing kumikilos tayo para mapabuti ang buhay ng iba, tuwing nilalabanan natin ang kawalan ng katarungan, nakalilikha tayo ng maliliit na galaw. Kapag nagkasama-sama ang mumunting galaw na mga ito, bubuo ito ng isang malakas na puwersang kayang magpabagsak maging ng pinakamatatag na dingding ng opresyon.”

And this is portion of Robert Kennedy’s speech that had been allegedly plagiarized:

“Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and the total—all these acts—will be written in the history of this generation….It is from numberless diverse acts of courage such as these that the belief that human history is thus shaped….Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Scooping portions from someone else’s speech to be used for one’s own delivery of speech is a common practice but it should always be credited properly by mentioning the name, like “And Robert Kennedy once said” or “And I quote…”

But how do you quote that lengthily?

It is fortunate that Senator Sotto is a former comedian and a showbiz personality that perhaps it is acceptable for him that he lampoons himself in public as often as he wants himself to be.

Or he could decide to stop embarrassing himself by firing Mr. Villacorta.