Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Dean, Please Don't Resign

Of all the decisions of the Supreme Court, perhaps In the Matter of the Charges of Plagiarism, etc. Against Associate Justice Mariano C. Del Castillo[1] has the most impact on ICT. It explains how ICT has changed the writing of legal decisions. And thanks to Microsoft Word not giving alarm when an inadvertent deletion of a work’s attribution is done, intent can now be argued to be an essential element of plagiarism under Philippine law. This is the dream case of someone writing his SLR paper.

Speaking of SLR, my SLR adviser just tendered his resignation as Dean of the UP College of Law on accusations of plagiarism he himself allegedly did. Prof. Owen Lynch, whose work the Dean allegedly misattributed, already explained that the Dean did not commit intellectual dishonesty as regards his work.

The Dean’s stance puts more pressure on me not just because I am a student in the College, but because I am his student in a legal writing subject. I would have to re-check my paper later if I properly cited the sources I used.

My SLR paper aside, I hope that Chancellor Cao rejects the Dean’s tender of resignation, not because my Adviser will have time to check my paper in case his resignation is accepted, but because my Dean did nothing wrong. Dean, please don’t resign.


Kate Lomoljo (Entry #4)


[1] A.M. No. 10-7-17-SC, October 12, 2010.

2 comments:

vanndamann said...

grabe, umeffort pa sila para lang maghanap ng butas kay dean..,

quoting... "But Lynch promptly cleared Leonen of wrongdoing also on Wednesday, saying he and the UP law dean had collaborated for 24 years and have shared the same ideas in the course of their work.

"I therefore find it unfortunate that Dean Leonen's ideas, which have found their way to the contents of my amicus [friend of the court] brief, are now being used against him. In my view, the Dean committed no act of intellectual dishonesty in relation to my works," said Lynch in a letter dated Dec. 8 and addressed to UP Diliman Chancellor Cao. "...

from: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/207845/up-law-dean-marvic-leonen-offers-to-resign-due-to-plagiarism-case

Phebean Belle "Phoebe" A. Ramos said...

I agree. They are brimming with bad faith. >=(