Tito Sotto plagiarism mess: A Big Deal?

APPARENTLY Senator Vicente "Tito" Sotto III allegedly committed plagiarism when he supposedly lifted words (more like a whole paragraph) from the work of several bloggers and used them in his anti-Reproductive Health Bill speech.

Wow, this deserves our utmost attention; we should be outraged about this, NOT.

It's really surprising how Filipinos reacted to this controversy. First of all, Tito Sotto was not exactly elected for his knowledge or intellect. He got his spot because he was a celebrity.

So, with that in mind, is it really surprising that a politician, not known for his wits, but nevertheless given the responsibility of a position that essentially requires intellect, made a flopping mistake in his conduct? It's really funny on how big of an issue this controversy has become.

If we look at this in a broader perspective, who is Juan to be outraged about this anyway? If history serves us right, the Philippines has long been stereotyped to be first-class "copycats."

Our movies, ranging from before to the present, have been criticized as mere imitation not only once but for countless times.

Taking the Panday of 2010 as an example, it has been criticized as a classic rip-off of Hollywood's remake of Clash of the Titans. Our TV shows' concept are mostly not original. Pinoy Big Brother, Deal or No Deal and Pilipinas Got Talent are few of the many shows that are considered to be big hits, but sadly cannot be claimed to be our own.

Our country is a democratic one after all. And in democracy, fame and fortune rule for most of the time. We despise Senator Sotto for not being original but we put him there at the first place. Basically, his action reflects Juan.

There are bigger issues out there that need our attention. (Paul Tan)