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Opinion

Plagiarism, dishonesty, selfishness…what's next?


A senator and prominent philantropist businessman delivered plagiarized speeches.

The Napoles issue resulting from excessive greed is trending among plain rumor mongers and the hi-tech ones via social networks. And now, a UP student plagiarized a photo which eventually won. Where will greed bring us next?
 
The senator boldly defended himself with a smile. The businessman just resigned from his top post in the university with a sad face. Napoles is languishing in luxurious confinement with a hearty laugh. A teacher in UP by the name of Mendoza called Solis, the photo plagiarist, a “good student”, although she met him only once.
 
What is happening to us Filipinos? We seem to have lost our values. And I am not surprised because the GMRC (Good Manners and Right Conduct) as an important integral component of basic instruction to students by the time they set foot on school grounds is nearly non-existent.
 
I am sure the reaction to this statement would be that it has been “improved”, hence, “replace” with another subject. If so, are the same values still taught? Take note of the following:
 
* Students no longer know how to kiss the hands of their elders, which is part of Filipino culture and tradition.
 
* Seldom do you hear youngsters use the “po” , “ho”, “opo”, “oho” (though some still due to the insistence of their parents).
 
* Students love to sound foreign by not pronouncing Filipino words properly, such as the “R” (by not speaking in our language as Filipinos "the right way", we become dishonest because we do not show our real selves).
 
The school, through their teachers, seem deaf and blind to the above situations. I doubt if teachers ever call the attention of students who speak in Filipino with an American twang. All those point to the failure of our education system to inculcate in the minds of the students the honesty as a Filipino value.
 
Some students, in their desire to complete school requirements to be able to graduate, “copy” and “paste” research materials from the internet to come up with a thesis. I know this because I have encountered these kinds of materials in my job as an editor. I know that the material is plagiarized if it is very well written (it's too good to be true). 
 
To confirm my suspicions, I would ask my clients to show me some of their notes. If my client admits to the crime, that’s the time that I have to rewrite, condense, etc. the material. 
 
Often, these students humbly admit that they find it hard to express themselves in English. Bluntly put, the school failed in the aspect of general development of the students. A development which should have started at an early age, when parents entrusted their children to the school.

It is a sad reality that has become deeply rooted in the personality of our youth which they manifest when they go out to face the world teeming with the same bad attitude. 
 
As a self-made Filipino who worked my way to a decent life through hard work and honesty, I am saddened by the new adage: May the best plagiarist and most dishonest win! – KDM/HS, GMA News 
 

Apolinario Villalobos  is an editor and essayist based in Sultan Kudarat. This originally appeared on his Facebook Timeline. We are re-posting it here with his permission.
 


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