MANILA (Updated 5:07 p.m.) -- Senator Vicente Sotto III has apologized to the family of late Robert Kennedy amid criticisms that he plagiarized one of the former American lawmaker's speeches in September.
But Sotto never owned up to the mistake, saying it was not his intention to translate some quotes of Kennedy's "See of Affirmation" speech in Filipino.
"If it upsets the Kennedy family, well then I'm sorry but that is not the intention we had when we used it," he said in a privilege speech on Tuesday, adding "copying or imitation is the highest form of flattery."
Thirty seven people including professors from the country's leading learning institutions--University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University--have already filed an ethics complaint against Sotto to make him accountable for the alleged nine instances of plagiarism he delivered on the Senate floor.
The speeches were in connection with Sotto's opposition to the controversial Reproductive Health bill, whose approval in the Senate has remained uncertain due to priority measures such as the 2013 national budget and the sin tax reform bill.
Sotto welcomed the complaint filed with the ethics committee because this will give him the opportunity to refute the allegations, which he said was the handiwork of those in favor of the RH bill.
"You can call me names, but I will not change my position and I will always be against the distribution of contraceptives," he said.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile earlier claimed that members of Congress have immunity from suit on speeches they delivered but a member of the ethics committee said the argument was misplaced.
"[T]he defense of parliamentary immunity will not hold before the ethics committee. I will leave that to the chair of the ethics committee to decide on whether we should take cognizance of a case based on alleged plagiarism, whether it is sufficiently substantial in his view. Presumably, either he has to make a decision or we'll have to take a vote," Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago told reporters.
Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano heads the seven-man panel. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)