U.P. Alumni support U.P. Law Professors vs. Supreme Court Show-cause Order

UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
Press Release

4 November 2010

The University of the Philippines Alumni Association (UPAA) yesterday expressed full support for the position of the university’s law professors on the plagiarism controversy involving a justice of the Supreme Court.

The UPAA, the official umbrella organization of the university’s alumni and their chapters worldwide, also called for the immediate withdrawal of the SC order requiring the professors, including the incumbent and former deans of the UP College of Law, to show cause why they should not be disciplined for criticizing the plagiarism they said was committed by Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo, and for calling for his resignation.

In a Board-approved resolution, the UPAA said that “as citizens, lawyers and educators in our country where no one is above the law and the acts of officialdom are subject to public scrutiny, the UP College of Law professors have both the right and the duty to voice their vigilant and well-considered criticism of the plagiarism and demand the resignation of Justice del Castillo"

Del Castillo was the ponente for the Supreme Court decision in Vinuya vs. Executive Secretary, G.R. No. 162230. The UP law professors had pointed out that he committed plagiarism by failing to cite the sources of verbatim passages he used in his ponencia, and demanded that he resign. The Supreme Court subsequently absolved del Castillo from the charge of plagiarism for supposed lack of malice or of negligence on his part. In turn, the SC asked the professors to show cause why they should not be disciplined for criticizing the plagiarism and calling for the justice’s resignation.