2 lawyers told to comment on magistrate's plagiarism denial

The Supreme Court's ethics committee has ordered two lawyers representing former comfort women to answer Associate Justice Martin del Castillo's letter denying he committed plagiarism in his ponencia junking the women's plea. "Attorneys Harry Roque and Rommel Bagares are being required to comment on the letter of Justice del Castillo within a non-extendable period of five days," said SC administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez at a news briefing Tuesday. Chief Justice Renato Corona chairs the committee, with Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro as vice chair. The members are Associate Justices Roberto Abad, Jose Mendoza, and Jose Perez. Marquez said the ethics panel will only focus on the allegations of plagiarism, and not on the merits of the comfort women's case, which is presently on appeal before the court. Roque and Bagares are counsels for the comfort women, or victims of sexual slavery during World War II. The women are asking the court to have the Philippine government compel Tokyo to publicly apologize and to provide them compensation. Last April 28, 2010, a ruling penned by Del Castillo dismissed the women's request, saying the court has no power to order the Executive branch of government to take up the women's cause. Allegations that Del Castillo lifted portions of his ponencia from sources without proper attribution cropped up in July after Newsbreak reported the matter. Around that time, the women also filed supplemental motion formalizing their allegations that the embattled magistrate committed plagiarism. Del Castillo's letter Last July 22, Del Castillo sent a letter to his colleagues denying he plagiarized portions of his ruling. "It must be emphasized that there was every intention to attribute all sources, whenever due. At no point was there ever any malicious intent to appropriate another's work as our own," a portion of Del Castillo’s letter read. He also apologized to the court for "any inconvenience this matter has caused... and for the diversion of attention from far more significant concerns." Del Castillo also attached a chart explaining that the allegedly plagiarized portions were attributed properly to their respective sources. — Sophia Dedace/RSJ/KBK, GMANews.TV