Plagiarist Tito Sotto

SHAME ON YOU TITO SOTTO!

Last Monday, Senator Vicente “Tito Sotto, III gave his emotional rebuttal on Reproductive Health Bill or RH Bill using his personal experience when his third child died from heart complications due to contraceptive usage by his wife.

Most people initially never knows that his speech was a carbon copy of a blog entry by “Sarah, the healthy home economist,” a US-based writer who also opposes vaccines for children and offers recipes for goodies like grain-free pumpkin cookies.

Sotto did not attribute any of his words or research to “Sarah, the healthy home economist”, whose disclaimer cautions that “the nutritional and other information on this website are not intended to be and do not constitute health care or medical advice.”

The connection to “Sarah, the healthy home economist” was first exposed by Alfredo Melgar of Filipino Freethinkers.

However, after he was bombarded with criticism yesterday, Tito Sotto belied claims of plagiarism and answered his critics unreasonably with:

“I always say a blanket disclosure these are not from me, ano plagiarism dun?”.

Sotto said that he and the blogger quoted from the book of Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride, whom he cited in his speech.

Here is a comparison of Sotto’s speech and Sarah’s blog:

Sotto’s speech (second to last paragraph):

“According to Dr. Natasha Cambell-McBride MD, the use of the pill also causes severe gut dysbiosis. What is worse, drug inducted gut imbalance is especially intractable and resistant to treatment either with probiotics or diet change.”

Sarah’s blog:

“According, to Dr. Natasha Cambell-McBride MD, use of other drugs such as the Pill also cause severe gut dybiosis. What’s worse, drug induced gut imbalance is especially intractable and resistant to treatment either with probiotics or diet change.”

2. Sotto’s speech:

“Gut imbalance brought on through use of the pill negatively impacts the ability to digest food and absorb nutrients. As a result, even if a woman eats spectacularly will during pregnancy, if she has been taking oral contraceptives for a period of time beforehand, it is highly likely that she and her baby are not reaping the full benefits of all this healthy food as the lack of beneficial flora in her gut preclude this from occurring.”

Sarah’s blog:

“Gut imbalance brought on through use of the Pill negatively impacts the ability to digest food and absorb nutrients. As a result, even if a women eats spectacularly well during pregnancy, if she has been taking oral contraceptives for a period of time beforehand, it is highly likely that she and her baby are not reaping the full benefits of all this healthy food as the lack of beneficial flora in her gut preclude this from occurring.”

3. Sotto’s speech:

“Pathogenic, opportunistic flora that take hold in the gut when the pill is used constantly produce toxic substances which are the by-products of their metabolism. These toxins leak into the woman’s bloodstream and they have the potential to cross the placenta . Therefore, gut dysbiosis exposes the fetus to toxin.”

Sarah’s blog:

“Pathoginic, opportunistic flora that take hold in the gut when The Pill is used constantly produce toxic substances which are the by-products of their metabolism. These toxins leak into the woman’s bloodstream and guess what, they have the potential to cross the placenta! Therefore, gut dysbiosis exposes the fetus to toxins.”

4. Sotto’s speech:

“Not well known is the fact that use of the pill depletes zinc in the body. Zinc is called ‘the intelligence material’ as it is intimately involved in mental development.”

Sarah’s blog:

“Not well known is the fact that use of The Pill depletes zine in the body. Zinc is called ‘the intelligence mineral’ as it is intimately involved in mental development.”

On the same day after this plagiarism issue came out within the online community, “Sarah, the healthy home economist”, the blogger who published Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD’s works condemned what Tito Sotto and his staff have done of using her blog entry without permission and in fact, “Sarah, the healthy home economist” states that even her words were twisted by Tito Sotto’s speech.

Then, one of the staffs of Senator Tito Sotto issues an apology:

Lame excuse.

Then the blogger responds him with harsh words:

Great rebuttal.

Tito Sotto and your staff, you should have attributed the name of the blogger first before you delivered your emotional rebuttal on RH Bill but what you and your staff have done was not just an intellectual dishonesty but a moral sin in the face of the society and your church where you and your staff belong. People are not buying your personal experience as they want a more access to artificial family planning like condom and many others without moral impediments from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the Philippines.

For sure, Tito Sotto, your grandfather would roll in his grave on what you did last Monday and choke you to death as your grandfather became a great poet and journalist of my mother language, Cebuano, not through copying other people’s works but creating through his own ideas.

DISCLAIMER: Some of the information I stated here are derived from GMA News Online.