Manny Pangilinan delivered a graduation speech at the Ateneo. It was subsequently revealed that substantial portions of the speech had been lifted from speeches of President Barrack Obama, JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame, and Oprah Winfrey. It was a case of plagiarism.
Learning of the embarrassing situation which he had unwittingly fallen into, Pangilinan did the honorable thing. He took full responsibility for the incident, apologized, and announced his resignation as chairman of the university’s board of trustees. What were his other options?
He could have blamed his speech writers. We understand that two young people had ghosted for Pangilinan, rather than his usual writers. He could have exploded with righteous indignation over the unwarranted stain on his honor and dignity.
Or he could have dismissed the accusation of plagiarism as too much ado over a minor matter, considering how many important issues the detractors could have turned their attention to, like the coming presidential elections, the world economic crunch, and the disappointing Clottey-Pacquiao fight.
Or he could have accused unnamed taipans and business rivals and dared them to provide proof that he had “wilfully” plagiarized the speeches, considering that nothing in this world is original anyway — and it could have simply been an uncanny coincidence.
On top of that, he could have directed his PR managers to make sure that the story did not get too much exposure in the media. In other words, apply Suppress Relations.
But, no, Manny Pangilinan took the blow on the chin, apologized profusely, expressed his embarrassment as plainly as he could – “I am afraid the damage has been done – I have lost face” – and left it to the public to make their judgment.
This is one Manny that I have the greatest admiration for. It takes a great deal of manliness to do what he did.
Lest the chairman of PDLT and Smart think I’m trying to gain a free mobile phone and a lifetime of free minutes from him, I would like to relate an incident that involved one of his top executives — Greg Atienza, former president of PilTel and of the marketing arm of Smart. This will explain why I have the highest regard for people like Manny Pangilinan who have the cojones to acknowledge where the buck stops.
Greg Atienza was my subordinate, my account supervisor, for the Milo account, part of the Nestlé business that was the bread, butter, caviar, rice, and fish of Advertising & Marketing Associates. This was before I became the agency’s CEO.
Greg was assigned to supervise a project, had arrived late at the project venue due to transportation problems, and was told off in no uncertain terms by the Milo product manager. When I arrived at the venue and learned about it, I lost my temper and gave the client hell, telling him that he had no right to treat my people like a peon. Now, only an idiot would do that to an executive of a premier client like Nestlé, which was what I was when I lost my cool. At any rate, the client was more even tempered than I was. He suggested that we get the job done anyway, and fight later. We agreed to finish the job.
As soon as we were done, I noticed that Greg had disappeared. As it turned out, he had made a beeline for AMA and the office of Tony de Joya, chairman and president, and had reported the incident to the boss. “And why are you telling me this?” Tony demanded to know.
“Because, sir, Mr. Macabenta will tell you that it was his fault,” said Greg. “The truth is, it was my fault.”
At that point, I arrived at AMA and headed straight for Tony’s office. “I got into a fight with client,” I immediately told Tony. “It was my fault.”
Mercifully, Tony did not fire Greg and me, and we did not lose the Nestlé account. Frits Van Dijk, the product manager involved, and I became close friends. Frits went on to become president of several Nestlé markets.
Having expressed my admiration for Manny Pangilinan, because I can identify with what he has been through; let me turn to another Manny – Manny Villar, candidate for president of the Philippines.
Apparently the creative geniuses in his campaign got carried away and spun tall tales about his poverty-stricken childhood and the tragic death of his brother due to lack of money for medicine. Enterprising media people did some digging into Villar’s real background and found his tales rather tall. The media folks took pains to provide documents to back up their incredulity.
How did Manny Villar respond? He accused the media folks, including respected columnists like Winnie Monsod and Billie Esposo, of being hired guns of his political opponents. And, to this day, in spite of proof to the contrary, Villar continues to insist that every thread of his yarn is genuine.
Villar has also been accused of using his positions in government – as speaker of the House and Senate president, no less – to earn billions for his real estate companies. A fellow senator, Joker Arroyo, accused him of violating the public trust and provided evidence (never mind that the Joker is now one of Villar’s chief defenders). Several of Villar’s colleagues in the Senate have signed a report prepared by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, lending credence to the accusations. Winnie Monsod has prepared a point-by-point analysis of the C-5 scandal, supported by documents.
How has Villar responded? He has issued a blanket denial of all the accusations but has refused to face his detractors in the Senate — preferring instead to talk to friendly media. Given all of these, one can conclude that Manny Villar is the complete opposite of Manny Pangilinan.
And talking of plagiarism, you should see the latest TV commercial of Villar. It is a complete copy of a creative technique used for another presidential campaign, that of Ricardo Lopez Murphy of Argentina.
Of course, Villar did not write the storyboard — the way Manny Pangilinan did not write his speech – and Villar may not even be aware that his copywriters are plagiarists.
But now that he knows, will he follow the example of Manny Pangilinan and take full responsibility for this flagrant case of creative and intellectual theft?
Or will Villar take the option that most politicians in our hapless country resort to? Wash his hands? Blame his political detractors? And claim persecution? That remains to be seen.
By the way, in spite of the impressive creative device that Ricardo Lopez Murphy used in his TV commercial, he lost in the 2007 presidential elections. He got a measly 1% of the votes.
Maybe Manny Villar’s creative geniuses are secretly working for somebody else. (gregmacabenta@hotmail.com)