Stealing, plagiarism, lying: What’s the difference?

DISSENTING FROM the Supreme Court majority decision that declared Sen. Grace Poe qualified to run for president, Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo wrote: “A person who aspires for the highest position in the land must obey the highest law of the land.” He was in substance saying that Poe lied, in her certificate of candidacy for president, that she is a natural-born Filipino and a 10-year resident in this country. Poe’s biggest crime, to the honorable justice’s mind, was perjury which renders her unfit to be president! The majority opinion, at the very least, said Poe did not necessarily lie.

In the first place, how much different is Poe’s crime of lying under oath from Del Castillo’s crime of lying in a decision promulgated by the Supreme Court? Plagiarism is a “species” of dishonesty (lying) by any reckoning. Del Castillo passed the blame on to his legal researcher who, he said, failed to make any attribution of the copied paragraph to its true author. But the thing is, it was he who signed that decision and, therefore, for all intents and purposes, everything written there was his!

However, as expected, his peers in the Supreme Court exonerated Del Castillo and chose to lower the boom on the lowly researcher. They behaved like a “mutual admiration club” averse to finding fault with anyone of their “own.” Chances are, most of them are just as guilty of relying on what their legal researchers feed them. Citing heavy backlog, they would say there is simply no way for them to do the research for every case assigned to them. Well, as the saying goes, if it’s too hot for you, get out of the kitchen!

Secondly, it’s hard to understand how self-anointed guardians of morality could shout to high heavens and condemn Poe’s “lying” on a piece of paper while being totally reticent about the charges of grand larceny and looting of public funds against her closest rival! Del Castillo’s heart bleeds for the future of this country on account of that “lie,” but looks the other way from the massive corruption that is plunging this country deeper into the abyss of despair and hopelessness.

—JAN VINCENT L. MARTINEZ, [email protected]