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Aquino hints he is siding with UP Law on plagiarism issue


President Benigno Aquino III on Friday widely indicated that he is taking the side of the University of the Philippines College of Law faculty in its battle with the Supreme Court over the alleged plagiarized decision of one of the high court's justices. In his speech before the reunion of UP Law alumni, the president said he is hoping that UP Law will continue helping the government in correcting what is wrong, saying it is never right to resort to copying others' work.
"Hindi laging madali ang pagtahak sa tuwid na landas. Pareho po ang pananaw natin ukol dito. Hindi dapat magsinungaling. Hindi dapat mangopya. At hindi dapat magnakaw o gumamit ng mga pagsusuring walang pahintulot o wastong pagkilala sa may akda nito," said Aquino before hundreds of UP Law alumni who cheered wildly, interrupting his speech with applause several times. (It is not always easy to follow the straight path. We have the same view regarding this. You should not lie. You should not copy. And you should not steal or use others' works without their authors' permission or proper attribution.) Aquino’s remark was in apparent reference to the accusation of plagiarism leveled against Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo, whom the Supreme Court recently absolved of wrongdoing. The president said those who are in power should also not threaten those who only express their opinions, again apparently referring to the SC’s threat to discipline the 37 UP Law faculty who condemned the alleged plagiarism of a member of the SC. "Hindi rin dapat sinisindak o tinatakot ng mga nakakataas ang mga taong nais lang ipahayag nang malaya ang kanilang opinyon at ilantad ang katotohanan. Ang mga patakaran na nariyan na noon pang panahon ni Mahoma ay hindi dapat ginagamit para pagtakpan ang kasalanan sa mga naligaw sa baluktot na daan," he said. (Those who want to freely express their opinions and expose the truth should not be threatened by those in power. Rules that have long been existing should not be used to cover up the faults of those who lost their way.) The president also said: "Kaisa ako ng buong UP Law, lalo na ang tatlumpu't-pitong miyembro nito, sa kanilang adhikain na ituwid ang baluktot na daan." (I am one with the UP Law, especially with its 37 members, in their advocacy to straighten the crooked path.) Aquino later added that he is not trying to pick a fight with anyone: "Wala po akong inaaway, nagsasabi lang po ako ng tototo. Malapit na po ang Pasko, bawal makipag-away." (I am not trying to pick a fight with anyone, I'm just telling the truth. Christmas is nearing, so fighting is forbidden.) Leonen's speech In Friday's alumni homecoming, UP Law Dean Marvic Leonen briefly mentioned the plagiarism controversy in his speech. Leonen lauded UP lawyers for speaking "courageously" against the alleged plagiarism in the court, which he said is the court of last resort for marginalized sectors like comfort women. If the legal educators “chose to be silent, we felt that our court would lose its credibility in the international environment," he said. On the other hand, if they chose not to defend themselves on principle, “we might unduly send the signal that the leading institution that teaches the noblest values in our law should cower in the face of authority," Leonen said, referring to the UP College of Law. “What we did is nothing compared to what our people — properly empowered — should be able to demand; that they should be able to speak to power, candidly," he added. Plagiarism mess Allegations that Del Castillo committed plagiarism broke out in July this year, when lawyer Harry Roque and an investigative publication noticed that the ruling on World War II sex slaves or "comfort women," which was written by the SC justice as ponente, contained material lifted from at least three foreign sources without the proper attributions. A month later, on August, the UP law faculty came out with a statement, with 37 signatories, calling for Del Castillo's resignation in order to restore the court's integrity. Last October 12, the court absolved Del Castillo from accusations of plagiarism, accepting his explanation that the attributions were “unintentionally" deleted from the digital file containing the text of the ruling. A week later, the high tribunal ordered the 37 law professors to "show cause" or explain why they should not be disciplined for violating the Code of Professional Responsibility for lawyers. The code prohibits the airing of public statements that tend to influence public opinion while a case is pending. The professors submitted their compliance, or reply, to the show-cause order on Friday. They explained that the statement was issued not to malign the court but "to help promote integrity in judicial decision-writing, and thereby maintain the public's respect for the Courts." (See: UP Law profs defend statement vs SC 'plagiarism') Growing Aquino-SC rift? It was not the first time that the country’s Chief Executive clashed with the Supreme Court or its leading justices. Even when Aquino was still president-elect in June, an obvious rift had already arisen between him and newly-appointed SC chief justice Renato Corona, in the aftermath of the highly-charged process by which Corona was selected to replace retiring chief justice Reynato Puno. Once Aquino assumed the presidency, the constitutional basis of several of his earliest executive orders were quickly questioned by the opposition, generating legal controversies that involved the SC. In September, SC administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez asked Malacañang to exercise "judicial courtesy" in allowing the Truth Commission to begin its inquiry, since the legality of Executive Order No. 1 creating the truth body was still being deliberated by the court. In turn, just last month, Aquino told the high court to exercise judicial prudence in its decisions, particularly after the high court issued a status quo ante order in response to the petition of National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) commissioner and secretary Bai Omera Dianalan-Lucman against Executive Order No. 2 revoking "midnight" appointments.—JV, GMANews.TV

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