Tito (Sotto) Escalera: he’s baaack!

Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente "Tito" Sotto III (Voltaire Domingo, NPPA Images)

Is it 'Iskul Bukol' all over again?

After Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente "Tito" Sotto III's chief of staff Atty. Hector Villacorta publicly and openly admitted that his boss had committed plagiarism for using portions of posts made by Sarah Pope in her "Healthy Home Economist" blog, the senator quickly became the subject of criticism and ridicule for actions that recall his character Tito Escalera in the 80s sitcom.

In "Iskul Bukol," Tito Escalera and his "brother" Joey Escalera (portrayed by Joey de Leon) were bullies who needled class genius Vic Onassis (Vic Sotto) into doing class writing assignments for them.

It seems the esteemed senator hasn't shrugged off his Escalera past.

New plagiarism charges

Now, there are new charges of plagiarism from his second speech at the Senate floor, wherein bulk portions of that piece were copied as is from three other blogs.

In reports from Philippine Entertainment Portal and InterAksyon, novelist Miguel Syjuco said Sotto "lifted, verbatim,