Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago's Pick-up lines

Commentary on SC justice to court spokesman: Don't misinform public - Nation - GMA News Online - Latest Philippine News

Former U.P. College of Law Professor and now Supreme Court Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno issued a stinging rebuke to SC spokesperson Midas Marquez; who made it appear that the Supreme Court voted to issue a status quo ante order to prevent the House of Representatives' justice panel from hearing two impeachment complaints vs. Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez after receiving copies of the petition when the fact is that they never had ample time to study and read Gutierrez' petition which was only filed the day before.

The implication is obvious: Atty. Marquez is acting as the official apologist for a rubber-stamp, GMA-sympathetic and dominated Supreme Court was only too glad to issue a status quo ante order vs. the hearing of the impeachment complaints versus Gutierrez, who is the best guarantee of former President Arroyo against official prosecution for high crimes and misdemeanors versus the Filipino people.

To read the rest of the GMA News article discussing Atty. Marquez's lack of transparency in keeping the public informed about what happened, please click on this link: SC justice to court spokesman: Don't misinform public - Nation - GMA News Online - Latest Philippine News

The Diliman Diary supports the growing clamor by citizen's groups such as Pagbababo (please see:  http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2011/03/pagbabago-calls-for-public-support-for.html) for the impeachment of Ombudsman Gutierrez, because there is a tremendous backlog of investigations by the Ombudsman versus high-ranking government officials inside and outside the Diliman area. This can only have come about because of unrecorded deals made in back rooms in the corridors of power. But even as justice delayed is surely justice denied; we in turn are witness to the pathetic spectacle of the Ombudsman announcing in the media and on its official website about how proactively and aggressively its office is investigating and prosecuting what amounts to the smallest of the small-fry in our government while the real criminals, scalawags and the crooks prance away scot-free. This spectacle fills us with shame and disgust.

And rage.

We therefore look forward to witnessing impeachment proceedings versus the Ombudsman take place with the first step of a long process taking place in the House of Representatives and ending (no matter how it ends) in the Senate. Time is of the essence, and it is important for a truly independent Ombudsman to be appointed so that the era of impunity and lack of fear by our government officials against official prosecution will draw to a close.

iBLOG 7: The 7th Philippine Blogging Summit at the U.P. College of Law

The University of the Philippines College of Law Internet and Society Program (UP Law-ISP) will be hosting iBLOG 7: The 7th Philippine Blogging Summit—an open event for the Pinoy blogging community.

For the past six years, the UP Law-ISP has been hosting successful Philippine Blogging Summits so that these events become highly-anticipated interaction venues, where famous Pinoy bloggers give informative talks and more than 300 bloggers attend.

The 7th Philippine Blogging Summit will be held on April 1 and 2, 2011, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., at the Malcolm Theater, Malcolm Hall, College of Law, U.P. Diliman Campus, Quezon City.

harryroque.com: A Statement by the Faculty of the U.P. College of Law

"In common parlance, ‘plagiarism’ is the appropriation and misrepresentation of another person’s work as one’s own. In the field of writing, it is cheating at best, and stealing at worst. It constitutes a taking of someone else’s ideas and expressions, including all the effort and creativity that went into committing such ideas and expressions into writing, and then making it appear that such ideas and expressions were originally created by the taker. It is dishonesty, pure and simple."

Read the rest here: harryroque.com: A Statement by the Faculty of the U.P. College of Law

Executive Committee of the University Council of U.P. Diliman denounces all forms of Plagiarism and SC's "show cause" order vs. U.P. Law Faculty, upholds Academic Freedom

Editor's note: The following is a statement of the Executive Committee (EXECOM) of the University Council of U.P. Diliman dated October 27, 2010. The EXECOM is composed of the Deans/Directors of the different Collges and Schools in U.P. Diliman, including the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellors, University registrar, and three (3) members-at-large.

NO TO PLAGIARISM! ASSERTING ACADEMIC FREEDOM

A Statement of the University of the Philippines Diliman Executive Committee*

We, the University of the Philippines Diliman Executive Committee, denounce plagiarism and uphold academic integrity.

As educators, scholars and researchers, our worth is measured by the integrity, excellence and discipline we bring to our work.  Plagiarism undermines that integrity and destroys the value of scholarship.

We strongly disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision to exonerate Justice Mariano del Castillo from charges of plagiarism based on the lack of malice or negligence on his part (in In Re: Del Castillo, A.M. No. 10-7-17-SC, 15 October 2010).

The lack of malice or intent does not excuse the act of plagiarism. 

The Court has undermined academic freedom by threatening to discipline 37 faculty members of the U.P. College of Law for taking a principled position on a grave academic concern.

We stand by the U.P. College of Law Faculty for speaking out against plagiarism.

We ask the Supreme Court to withdraw the “show cause” order against the 37 faculty members of the U.P. College of Law. 

U.P. Diliman Executive Committee, 27 October 2010
________________________________

*Composed of the Deans/Directors of the different Colleges and Schools in U.P. Diliman, including the Chancellor, Vice Chancellors, University Registrar, and three (3) members-at-large

Harry Roque's Blog: MORE PLAGIARISM IN THE DEL CASTILLO's PONENCIA IN "ANG LADLAD"

One of my former students who is now pursuing further studies in the US made an independent review of the ponencia of SC Justice Mariano del Castillo in the "Ang Ladlad" case and listed the following instances of plagiarism:

To read the entire post from the blog of U.P. College of Law Professor Harry Roque, click here:

Harry Roque's Blog: MORE PLAGIARISM IN THE DEL CASTILLO's PONENCIA IN "ANG LADLAD"

Harry Roque's Blog: Further Mistakes from MS Word or more Plagiarism from Justice del Castillo?

In the earlier case of Ang Ladlad, (GR No. 190582, April 8, 2010) Justice Del Castillo appeared to have committed plagiarism as well. Our study is only preliminary but the exigencies of the situation have compelled us to make this public.

In the Ang Ladlad decision allowed a gay rights group to run in the party-list elections, and was released 20 days earlier than the Vinuya decision. The ponente here is also Justice Del Castillo.
 
Read U.P. College of LawProfessor Harry Roque's blog here:
 
Harry Roque's Blog: Further Mistakes from MS Word or more Plagiarism from Justice del Castillo? 

Commentary: U.P. College of Law Professor Harry Roque Opens a Very Large Can of Worms

By Chanda Shahani

U.P. College of Law Professor Harry Roque has opened a very large can of worms by filing a complaint with the Supreme Court alleging that Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo has plagiarized the works of three international legal scholars in penning the recent Supreme Court decision in Vinuya et al vs. The Executive Secretary (GR No. 162230).

Vinuya et al asks the Supreme Court to require that the Philippine Government to demand from Japan an apology and compensation on behalf of Filipino women who were turned into sex slaves by Japanese soldiers during the Second World War.

Professor Roque was the designated counsel of Isabelita Vinuya, et al. representing Malaya Lolas, a group of comfort women whose petition was dismissed by the SC (http://www.scribd.com/doc/35499463/vinuya-vs-romulo). But upon reading the decision, Roque found many of the passages “eerily familiar” and decided to file a complaint of plagiarism against Justice del Castillo with the SC, since del Castillo penned the decision. Roque's petition was rejected by the Supreme Court, the majority of whom signed off on GR No. 162230 as well.

Beyond the act of plagiarism itself which is very serious and which the Supreme Court acknowledges occurred – but dismisses – as a mere clerical lapse with no malicious intent - there is another issue involved here which Professor Roque remains silent about, but which the dissenting Justice, Ma. Lourdes A. Sereno in the complaint refers to obliquely in her dissenting opinion. This is the act of judicial plagiarism where a judge is given bullet points or a soft copy by the lawyer of the pleadings of one side in order to render a twisted form of lopsided justice. This is referred to by Justice Sereno in this manner: “In a certain sense, there should have been less incentive to plagiarize law review articles because the currency of judges is stare decisis (the legal principle by which judges are obliged to respect the precedents established by prior decisions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stare_decisis)). One wonders how the issue should have been treated had what was plagiarized been a court ruling, but that is not at issue here. The analysis in this opinion is therefore confined to the peculiar situation of a judge who issues a decision that plagiarizes law review articles, not to his copying of precedents or parts of the pleadings of the parties to a case.” (http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2010/october2010/10-7-17-SC_sereno.htm).

The motivation for a judge's “copying of parts of the pleadings of the parties to a case,” may actually be due to the sheer superiority of the arguments of one party and the sheer inferiority of the arguments of the opposing side. But there is also a more sinister possibility that may exist and can never be discounted. This is when the judge and the lawyer already have already made a prior silent contract with each other to implement a predetermined outcome for the case at hand. This basically perverts the very notion that justice is fair and that it is blind. But it goes even deeper than that..

By the admission of the Supreme Court itself, Justice del Castillo was totally unaware that plagiarism had occurred. The Supreme Court's explanation that the clerk of court had “inadvertently lifted entire passages” (http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2010/october2010/10-7-17-SC.htm) without even bothering to footnote them not only boggles the mind, but also reveals how easily major judicial decisions can be crafted and influenced by the clerks of court, who are nameless, faceless and not accountable in the manner that the Justices are.

The Supreme Court decision also shows how much influence a clerk of court has over a justice or judge before a decision is rendered. Certainly, one is prompted to ask the question as to what would influence a clerk of court of even a judge to be a participant in act of “judicial plagiarism.” We get our clue from a former member of the judiciary. As one retired Court of Appeals justice admitted, corruption is not new in the judiciary, but most of the times starts with lawyers and not with judges and magistrates.

"Yun yung corruptor eh, ‘yung justices corrupted lang (The lawyers are the corruptor, while the judges are the corrupted),” said former Court of Appeals Associate Justice Hilarion Aquino in an interview by Jun Veneracion in GMA’s 24 Oras (http://www.gmanews.tv/story/119729/Corruption-in-the-judiciary-exists---Philippine-Judicial-Academy).

Which brings us back to GR No. 162230. What on earth could have possessed the unnamed legal researcher to resort to legal acrobatics in order to twist the decision ultimately penned under the name of Justice del Castillo to essentially support the stand of the government of then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that no case, no matter how just, just wasn't worth the effort involved in pursuing with the government of Japan if it risked damaging bilateral relations with the Japanese?

At the end of the day, one has to question the priorities of then Executive Secretary (and now DFA Secretary) Alberto Romulo and his former principal, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who would be so quick as to dismiss the legitimate claims of abused comfort women so as not to jeopardize their relations with a powerful Asian neighbor. One wonders why if other countries such as Japan itself, the U.S. and the U.K. would go out of their way to fight for their citizens, (and never mind the temporary hiccups in bilateral relations with other countries) the the Philippine government cannot. One wonders what kind of gutless, spineless Executive Branch we have had who would argue before the Supreme Court that the violations of Filipinas decades ago no longer mattered as the overriding currency of the day was improved relations with Japan. One also wonders if the current President, Benigno S. Aquino III, possesses the moral courage to take on the cause of the comfort women as being important to the national interest now that the majority of the Supreme Court has spoken and said that it is not willing to act with courage and conviction on the issue of the abused comfort women or even on one of its very own Justices who outsources his own decision and doesn't even own up to the fact of his own command responsibility over his unnnamed researcher's intellectual dishonesty. It is a farce, but Harry Roque still has one last hand to play and that is at the bar of public opinion; and perhaps there is a possibility that President Aquino may just listen thanks to the ensuing outcry.

(Chanda Shahani is the Editor of the Diliman Diary)

Former U.P. Law Dean Pangalangan on the Supreme Court decision regarding plagiarism: "The latest injustice to the comfort women": opinion.inquirer.net

"PROF. HARRY Roque was reading the Supreme Court’s decision in the case that he filed in behalf of the comfort women, and he felt that certain passages looked eerily familiar. He then instructed a young associate in his firm, the Roque Butuyan Law Offices, to check out these passages in the Internet.

Romel Bagares, the associate, was shocked to find entire pages filled with text lifted verbatim—not just from the body of the article but also the footnotes—from three academic articles published abroad, and all these without making it clear to the reader that the text was not original to the ponente, Justice Mariano C. del Castillo."
 
Read the rest here:
 
Former UP Law Dean Pangalangan on the Supreme Court decision re plagiarism "The latest injustice to the comfort women": opinion.inquirer.net

U.P. Law faces sanction over SC plagiarism case - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

To read the Inquirer.net story on some U.P. College of Law Faculty facing possible sanctions over their initiative to file a complaint versus Associate Justice Mariano C. del Castillo over the issue of judicial plagiarism, please click the following link: UP Law faces sanction over SC plagiarism case - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

To read the actual Supreme Court decision on the case, please click this link: http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2010/october2010/10-7-17-SC.htm

To read the dissenting opinion of Associate Justice Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno, please click on this link: http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2010/october2010/10-7-17-SC_sereno.htm

Commentary: On SC clears Justice Mariano del Castillo in plagiarism charges by some U.P. Law Faculty

By Chanda Shahani

The Supreme Court has cleared Justice Mariano del Castillo of bad faith in the issue of judicial plagiarism charges levied against him by several faculty of the U.P. College of Law, some of whom hold ranking positions within the U.P. System. In a rebuke to some of the faculty, the Supreme Court acknowledged sloppy workmanship of one of the Justice's researchers and the technical limitations of MS Word to detect cut-and-pasted portions of the decision. But the Supreme Court also criticized the protest letter of the faculty, saying that it was made to appear that more faculty had actually signed the letter than actually did; impliedly asserting misrepresentation on the part of some of the faculty, that a majority of the faculty of the U.P. College of Law had signed the actual document.

Perhaps the Supreme Court may wish to consider going beyond MS Word and purchasing off-the-shelf anti-plagiarism software such as Viper, which are now being used overseas to detect plagiarism. In our case, the Diliman Diary reasserts its previous position supporting the faculty of the Ateneo Law School who said that it was premature for Justice del Castillo to even consider resigning over this issue pending the release of the Supreme Court's investigation. Now that the investigation has cleared Justice Castillo, we note that there is now additional data strengthening our suspicion that those who go on the attack are themselves vulnerable to attack (please see: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/09/7.html), as the documents they submitted questioning Justice del Castilo's professionalism very unprofessionally made it appear that there was an overwhelming number of signatories from the U.P. College of Law Faculty on their side, as was made abudantly clear by the Supreme Court. To read about this, please click on this link:
SC clears Justice Mariano del Castillo in plagiarism mess - Nation - GMANews.TV - Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs - Latest Philippine News

Now that the Supreme Court findings are out, we are now hugely motivated to start to screen recent court decisions favoring the U.P. Administration by running the U.P. Administration's arguments, opposing arguments and corresponding judicial decisions (soft copies of course) through the Viper software to see if some of the same signatories of the missive criticizing Justice del Castillo should not themselves be impliedly rebuked if it can be ascertained that the justice's "plagiarized" the U.P. Administration's arguments, lock-stock-and-barrel. After all, what would motivate a researcher of a judge or Justice, or even the judge or Justice to lift entire paragraphs from the arguments of only one opposing side? MS Word cannot detect plagiarism. The Viper software can detect plagiarism but it cannot make any conclusions about the dark side of the human psyche that may occasionally prevail over the ideal that justice should be blind. It is only the vigilance of concerned citizens, media, bloggers and other parties who can monitor these developments. The problem of jettisoned Honor by those from U.P. was recently and brilliantly alluded to by no less than U.P. School of Economics Professor Solita C. Monsod (please see: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/10/up-diliman-school-of-economics.html).

We are not questioning the right of the U.P. Administration to file cases or defend itself from suits, but as a community blog covering the Diliman area, of which the U.P. Administration is very much an inhabitant of, we wish to make sure that U.P. does not betray its own self-stated ideals of Honor and Excellence in fighting its legal fights. And at the end of the day, what is so wrong with that?

(Chanda Shahani is the Editor of the Diliman Diary)

Opinion: To Rehabilitate or Demolish our condemned Justice System?

Is Philippine Justice truly blind
- or just Ethically challenged?
(Source: http://tinyurl.com/24lbrkf)

By Katherine Verances Marfal

For most of the graduating high school students, becoming a University of the Philippines (U.P.) college student is just a fantasy, because of the slim chances of passing the UPCAT.

And similar fantasies are also felt by those who already passed the said exam, and are already regular U.P. Diliman students. These fantasies are - being accepted into these two elite colleges of the university - the College of Law and College of Medicine. Due to very stringent requirements needed to gain entrance into these institutions, not all U.P. Diliman Graduates are accepted to be students into these colleges. And after being accepted, come the countless sleepless nights to pass exams given by educational “terror” professors. And for the country as whole, these situations are replicated in all schools, offering Law and Medical courses. These two courses attract the majority of the students with superior IQ’s. Thus, one is tempted to compare the professionals that evolved from these two noble professions after they graduate.

Our medical doctors are recognized as among the best in the world. The health care of Filipinos, in spite being almost 100 million now, is now above par. We even export many of these medical professionals abroad, where they excel, are very much sought after and are very much valued.

Advances in the medical field have made it hi-tech now. A doctor can diagnose the ailment of a patient in an instant accurately, and prescribe immediately the remedy to cure the ailment. The medical field has progressed considerably, since a century ago, when “hilots” and witch doctors “ways” were the predominant practices in this field.

In contrast, the Philippine legal profession a century ago was already a well developed field, with noble legal dictums in place and practiced for centuries before. But to the chagrin of many, these legal practices hardly changed thru the years; and did not improve with the changing times. These are the realities in this important field, though many opine that the Bar Exam is harder than Medical Board Exam. These are known to everybody.

The legal professionals and practitioners are sometimes victims themselves of these legal aberrations. During elections of public officials, many of these legal professionals cry out loud that they were cheated, causing them to file electoral protests. And to dismay of everybody, these electoral protests are resolved only- several days before the expiration of the cheater’s disputed term of office. This is similar to the situation, where a doctor finally prescribes the remedy to the ailment of the patient during the latter’s funeral. And most of the times, the cheated candidate is a cheater himself during previous elections. Only this time, he met his match, a better cheater than him.

Most governors and local government officials own hundreds of hectares of converted forest land reserves in their area of responsibility. These compose the bulk of their wealth, which they usurped thru legal manipulations. These resulted in the rise of turmoil in the rural areas, due to these injustices against poor rightful owners/tenants.

During the Martial Law times, there was a land case between groups of hundreds of farmers and several billionaire landowners. It involved a large tract of land (about 500 hectares) now occupied by the classiest subdivision located at the boundary of Quezon City, San Juan and Pasig. The group of farmers won up to the Supreme Court. Like defeated electoral candidates, the rich landowners were just waiting for their adversaries to be proclaimed; while the groups of farmers were ecstatic of their impending windfall; when suddenly, omnipotent beautiful hand touched the heads of the then justices, for them to reverse their legal stand. As the result, everybody became happy and got compensated; except of course, the said groups of farmers. That gallant lawyer of the poor farmers transferred to a mansion in a classy subdivision owned by the billionaire landowners. Before this happened, the moral and ethical reputation of the Supreme Court justices is similar to those of the Pope and his cardinals. The myth of incorruptibility was destroyed.

Twenty five years ago, a rich investor approached an owner of a 20-hectare land in the heart of Baliwag, Bulacan. The said investor offered the latter, a joint venture to develop the said land into a subdivision, where the said investor will shoulder the cost of development- which was accepted by the said owner. But to the chagrin of the owner, the investor immediately sold lots without any site development. This forced the owner to file a court case against the said investor, which was not resolved by the lower court for more than 30 years. This drove the family of the owner into deep poverty- due to the costs of the litigation and non-use of the property. Out of frustrations, the middle age son of the owner, who was only a boy when the case started, went up to the mountains and sought the help of the NPA’s. Upon learning the story of the case, a NPA commander sent notices to the rich investor and his lawyer never to attend court hearings concerning the case. Due to default, the local court was forced to declare the case in favor of the owner. This is an example of long delayed justice due to the ineptness of our court. This is the reason why NPA is considered as an “alternative court” in the rural areas.

These are just a few of the many sins of our justice system. And this is the primary reason why corruption is rampant in our society. Grafters are not afraid to do wrongs; because they believe that justice in the Philippines has a price and plenty of “fixcals” can be bought. For sure, our legal professionals know more about these.

This is not to cast aspersion on the law profession. We, as a family, have high regard of this calling. All my three brothers aspire to take up law- with the whole family very proud and supportive of this dream.

But it seems that the lawyers and justices themselves are victims of our justice system; whose quality has deteriorated over the years. Its like that elegant mansion built a century ago, but due to neglect and bad repairs, lost its glory. Yes, its is still being used, but its like those condemned structures, occupied by robbers , swindlers, cheaters, drug pushers, tax evaders, corrupt judges and other rats of the society that are infected of communicable virus of corruptions. It is sad to say that many of our idealists, very intelligent young lawyers are flushed into the septic tank of wasted legal minds, as they join other legal zombies as they enter this dilapidated mansion of justice- which is unfit to live in nobly.

Young legal minds cannot you not do something about this?

(Katherine Verances Marfal is a freelance writer. Among the publications she writes for are the Manila Bulletin, Sports Digest, Panorama and Pilipino Star Ngayon. She is also a Web Content Writer and teaches Pre-school at Philippine Normal University).