Smiles for the world plagiarized photo is showing the Calidad Humana we have as Filipinos?

"In crisis like this, come enlightening opportunities."  That's the most powerful line from the passionate and full of diplomacy Chilean Ambassador Roberto Mayorga as reply to my email sent to him yesterday. I told him that I'm sad for what happened and that not all Filipinos are like Mark Solis who joined and won the Internet based Calidad Humana "Smiles for the World" photo contest with a photo not his but belong to a Brazillian Photographer who later received an apology letter from Solis. 

The photo from Flickr under Gregory John Smith which he took in 2006.

Photo from GMA News: Ambassador Roberto Mayorga and Mark Solis at CCP during the awards night

I feel sad because of the fact that I myself had a multiple meetings with Ambassador Mayorga and his staff to spread the information about the photo contest. I even organized a media event for this project at his house at Forbes Park. I felt that I am also responsible for knowing if all photos submitted were all original and sad knowing it's an International event and a Filipino did a surprising photo plagiarism. 

Ambassador Roberto Mayorga and me during our first meeting at the Embassy of Chile

Photo taken from the web: Winning Photo?

 Below is the Press Statement from the Embassy of Chile on Calidad Humana Project Smiles for the World.

September 23 (Manila) The Embassy of Chile, together with the partners of the Calidad Humana Project, would like to express its gratitude to the Filipino people and our media partners who have provided their support for this initiative, including giving information regarding the irregularity of the photo submitted by Mr. Mark Joseph Solis, who was declaredwinner of the “Smiles for the World” photo competition.

Their support affirms the Filipino’s innate Calidad Humana, which is translated as strength of human character and all that contributes to a culture of excellence and a life of virtue well spent.

In accordance with the information that we have obtained confirming that Mr. Solis indeed plagiarized the work of Mr. Gregory Smith, the committee is in the process of re-evaluating the other submissions and has decided to revoke the prize issued to Solis. After due evaluation, a new set of winners will be announced.

Part of Calidad Humana involves living with integrity and upholding the values of the Filipino people. Obviously, Mr. Solis has failed to abide by this and we are considering taking legal action against him.

According to Ambassador Mayorga, “we must take this situation as a sign inviting Filipinos to an open discussion about the urgency to protect the Filipino people from the erosion of theirCalidad Humana. Filipinos still have innate values, such as honesty, compassion, and resiliency, although there are exceptions such as this case of plagiarism…this case must strengthen our faith and make us aware that we are in front of a hard challenge to take care and preserve the Calidad Humana that the majority of Filipinos have.”

With the Calabarzon and Manila based media during our meeting at Forbes Park with the Calidad Humana Team, Ambassador Roberto Mayorga and his wife, Former Board Member of Laguna and now Asec General of Philippine Red Cross Neil Nocon, UPLB professors and some of my friends.

From the official website:

“Calidad Humana” is human compassion, sense of humaneness, strength of character, and human tone. It is unique to the world. It is expressed through our cordiality and friendliness, our positive outlook in life, and SMILES on our faces. “Calidad Humana,” literally translated as the quality of being human and loosely translated as strength of character, may refer to the sum total of distinctively human characteristics that dignify and ennoble a person and enable him to contribute to a culture of excellence either in his immediate, mediate, or broader environment … either in unusual or day-to-day situations and circumstances. It is not a state a person is in but a constant movement to attain the state of human perfection. “Calidad Humana” marks the person noble in his dealings, steadfast in his convictions, and unfaltering in his equanimity, without any pretensions … everything that contributes in the end to a life well-spent. One need not have most, or much less all, positive traits in heroic proportions, nor would one need to be exempt from defects of character. What is needed for “calidad humana” is a quality or a cluster of qualities that steadily stands out in one’s personal and social life, hand-in-hand with an unwavering struggle for the other human virtues.

Sotto against a Million Bloggers in the Philippines

August 16, 2012, A lot of Bloggers at the Social Media site Twitter pours their outraged over Senator Vicente Sotto III after his interview with ANC's Headstart Karen Davila was reached the Netizens with his statement " Bakit ko naman iqu quote ang blogger? Blogger lang iyon." (Why am I going to quote a blogger? She's just a blogger.)

With the Senator statement, he obviously didn't realize the capabilities of bloggers. From wikipedia " Social networking is one of the most active web-based activities in the Philippines, with Filipinos being declared as the most active users on a number of web-based social network sites such as Friendster, Facebook, Multiply, Friendly and Twitter. The use of social networking website has become so extensive in the Philippines that the country has been tagged as "The Social Networking Capital of the World," and has also become part of Filipino cyber culture. Social networking is also used in the Philippines as a form of election campaign material, as well as tools to aid criminal investigation."

According to the internet, "A blog from the term web log is a discussion or information site published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first. Until 2009 blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often were themed on a single subject. More recently "multi-author blogs" (MABs) have developed, with posts written by large numbers of authors and professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, interest groups and similar institutions account for an increasing proportion of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other "micro blogging" systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into societal newstreams. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog."

In the Philippines with more or less than 100 Million in population and counting which according to some advocates are because of the lack of Reproductive Health Bill (lack of education, poverty and accessibility to hospitals, accessibility to condoms, pills and other reproductive health services and products for free among others), the country garnered more percentage in online usage, meaning, majority of the population are voters every election and the Senators statement from some bloggers was very discriminating.

From Jon Russell of Asian Correspondent.com "Asia dominates the world’s biggest social networking markets according to research from blog 24/7 Wall Street who compiled a list of countries where Facebook penetration (usage per population) is highest."

The Philippines tops the list with 93.9 percent of the nation reportedly signed up to Facebook, the full list is below with the summary from each Southeast Asian market following.

Philippines 93.9%

Israel 91%

Turkey 90.9%

Chile 90.2%

Argentina 89.2%

Malaysia 88.4%

Indonesia 87.5%

Peru 87.2%

Colombia 86.9%

Venezuela 86.2%

What is interesting is just how high Twitter usage amongst the three Southeast Asia countries while LinkedIn remains particularly low.

1. Philippines

> Facebook: 93.9%

> Twitter: 16.1%

> LinkedIn: 1.9%

> Internet Use: 29.7%

Social network penetration is incredibly high in the Philippines, reaching 95%. Facebook is the country’s most popular website, more so than Google, and has a penetration rate of 93.9%. The Philippines is also the eighth most popular country for Twitter use on a global scale, with a penetration rate of 16.1%. The popularity of photo sharing has increased by 46% in the country in one year, largely due to Facebook. Social networking is so popular among Filipinos, the country has been nicknamed “The Social Networking Capital of the World.” - Jon Russell

Discrimination against bloggers without knowing what they could do or maybe the Senator thought that bloggers are just those people who are using different Social Media tools for chatting and gossiping and it must be a wake up call to the Senator with majority of the bloggers show their sentiments by using a twitter hashtag #bloggerslangkami (we are just bloggers).

To make the story short, a blogger could be anyone, might be a doctor, architect, engineer, teacher, a government official like USEC like Manolo Quezon, Commissioner from the Bureau of Customs Ruffy Biazon, Senator Pia Cayetano or might be a computer engineer, Information Technology practitioner or the majority of the Philippine population.

Senator Sotto might be in power right now and his vote for the Reproductive Health Bill might be important but from his background as a Television host for sure never adds up to his credibility.The Filipino people elected him to be competent, reliable and fair to everyone, he must understand that as the one in a government office, it is not about him (when he said something about his child who died because of the complication which according to him was because of the pills) but about the majority of the population, rich or poor, for all Filipinos welfare.