Lawyer in SC plagiarism row himself denies plagiarism charges

Lawyer Harry Roque on Thursday denied an accusation hurled at him by a lawyers’ group which claimed he had published a plagiarized article. Roque was the first to call attention to allegedly plagiarized portions in a Supreme Court decision penned by Justice Mariano del Castillo. When the SC cleared Del Castillo of plagiarism charges, Roque filed a motion for reconsideration of the ruling, calling for the resignation of the justice and citing another decision penned by Del Castillo which allegedly also had plagiarized portions. In a letter dated December 4, Philippine Social Justice Foundation (Philjust) chided Roque for asking for Del Castillo to resign because "the one who goes to court must do so with clean hands." Roque belied Philjust’s claim that he came out with an article titled "The Proposed Philippine Anti-Terror Bill: An Act Legitimizing the President as Chief Execution Office" that was posted on the website of militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan). "I do not have such an article published – but I do have such a lecture (with slide presentation) which I delivered in many fora, including one before Bayan," Roque said in a statement. Roque, however, noted that he does have an article on the same topic published in 2007 in the Asia-Pacific Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, titled "The Basis of (In)security: The Human Security Act of the Philippines". He then dared Philjust to scrutinize the said article for any incident of plagiarism. The true scandal? Roque said he was "curious" why Philjust was turning its attention on him and fellow law professor at the University of the Philippines College of Law, dean Marvic Leonen whom the group also charged of plagiarism. "And as Jesus said, let him who is without sin cast the first stone," said the Philjust lawyers, namely, Samson Alcantara, Lope Feble, Mariano Santiago, and Pedro Dabu Jr. Roque said that this lawyers' group should instead channel their efforts on "the true scandal." "I suggest that a better indication of their 'social justice' advocacy would be to join the rest of the law schools, as well as scholars from abroad, in indicting Justice Mariano Del Castillo for a clearly plagiarized work," said Roque. Both Roque and Leonen have heavily criticized the alleged plagiarism committed by Del Castillo, whose ruling in April this year denied the pleas of World War II comfort women. Roque is counsel for the comfort women, while Leonen leads the so-called "UP Law 37" — a group of 37 UP law faculty members who demanded Del Castillo's resignation to "restore integrity" in the Supreme Court. Leonen, last Wednesday, has offered to resign from his post as UP Law dean. – MRT/JV, GMANews.TV