Netizens cannot help but notice the resemblance between the speeches of Far Eastern University (FEU) graduate Ms. Mariyela Mari Hugo, Batch Valedictorian of 2019 and Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges (CSPC) magna cum laude Jayvee Ayen, Batch 2022 Top 1.
“What happened, CSPC? Magna ‘yung nag-speech. If you received this Latin honor, you should take pride on what you do because you excelled in your four years of study. Getting inspiration is okay, copying it is a different story,” captioned Romerson Gadil in a post on Facebook highlighting the remarkably similar speeches.
Hugo’s speech which starts with the question “‘WHY DOES THIS ‘LANG’ ALWAYS EXIST?’ has been familiar to many making it difficult for netizens to not spot the similarity between the two speeches.
Some netizens even questioned how he was allowed to deliver the speech without proper checking or screening from the CSPC faculty.
Ayen has released a statement through the official school publication of CSPC saying that he did not intent to plagiarize or copy Hugo’s speech.
“I mean not to plagiarize […] Naka-relate lang rin ako ng sobra nung napanood ko yung video,” said Ayen.
He apologized to Hugo and said that it was just a coincidence that he watched her video and wanted to address the same topic.
“Kay Ma’am Mariyela, I am really sorry. Hindi ko po intensyon na i-plagiarize yung speech niya… Kung baga driven by her impactful speech kaya nagawa kong ma ipasok yung ibang thought sa speech ko without thinking na napa-plagarize ko na pala yung speech nya”, he added.
Hugo, however, did not seem to appreciate Ayen’s explanation, posting a short but spot on post on Facebook in connection with the issue citing a quote from Bowdoin which reads “Unintentional or accidental plagiarism is still plagiarism.”
The CSPC released a statement saying that they will be making appropriate steps for corrective and formative measures towards Mr. Ayen and in the school in general.
“We apologize to all other individuals and entities who may have been offended and affected by this issue. We knock on the generosity of hearts of everyone to allow this to pass without hatred towards the person as he moves on to start a career in his life as an entrepreneur or whatever path he would wish to take,” reads the statement.
