Sotto, Don’t Speak

Tito is from Eat Bulaga, a long running noontime show. He hosted it with Vic and Joey, both are aging comedians. The noontime show featured: beauty pageants (for men, women and kids), gags and jokes that range from mindless to toilet humor, frivolous games, scantily clad women dancing... And, the point is, it’s not a show that inspires smart discussions, intellectual stimulation, public service or anything that would be considered decent roots for a senator. 

That is, really, Tito Sotto never had much credibility, at least to me. I don’t remember anything about him politically. Perhaps, I was too young to notice then when he first got elected. And after his foray into politics, he just went back to hosting Eat Bulaga (I do think that it’s weird when politicians go back to their old jobs when their old jobs are things like: hosting noontime shows or hosting shows that criticize the government, i.e. Noli).

Tito Sotto didn’t do anything remarkable or nationalistic during his time off and then he suddenly becomes a senator again. 

Tito Sotto, SAY WHAT?!?!

(Disclaimer: image from Google search)

To me, Tito Sotto is just a blank spot, similar to Lito Lapid and Bong Revilla. They’re just there waiting to be told what to do by whoever wins the bid to push their buttons. They are mouth pieces, just as Tito Sotto’s only job was to be the narrator during the recent impeachment trial. Even if he is the majority floor leader, he didn’t have anything decent to say.  

So, I was actually surprised that he was standing up and playing a role in the RH bill issue. I didn't really listen all that much, as I don’t really listen to the anti RH people anymore lest I’d just die of annoyance, and all I know is that he cried, claimed contraceptives killed his child and spewed the expected twisted arguments. 

I really wasn't playing too much attention to him until this plagiarism issue came up. Even then, I find Tito Sotto so dull, dumb and uninspiring that I still didn’t give it the time of day. 

Only after a friend of mine told me more about the whole blogger fiasco did I browse some articles on his speech. All I can say is that what happened actually exceeded my expectations. 

That is, I never expected Tito Sotto to be the sharpest tool in the shed but perhaps because he had some years of experience, I’d thought he would at least be an expert in maneuvering his way around the political arena, well, apparently, that’s not the case. 

I don’t know what his chief of staff looks like but an image of an aging pencil pusher who’s out of touch with reality, technology and a normal sense of decency comes to mind. He does not even know the definition of plagiarism, makes me wonder if he’s really a lawyer. 

Well, Tito, just continue to do what you’ve been doing so far this term, just be a mouth piece or don’t be. Stop giving speeches and interviews. Stop saying you believe that the RH bill is not applicable to Filipinos like it is to other countries and stop quoting an American (a non-Filipino) blogger in your arguments. Just don’t speak.  

Funny about this plagiarism business, so many have been burned and yet lessons have not been learned. A certain MVP and his speech writers come to mind. 

Could we attribute this to generation gap?

I had this horrible (older) MBA groupmate who always cut and pasted his contributions from the internet, paragraphs of them, without even crediting the source. I always ended up editing his parts out or (embarrassingly) typing sources for his multiple plagiarized paragraphs when I had no time to replace his sections. 

Old folks, let me remind you that these days everything can be googled.