Cebu City Mayor Tomas “Tommy” Osmeña’s Facebook page is followed by more than 750,000 netizens. He is known to use his platform to engage his constituents on city affairs.

So it was no surprise that after losing an intense campaign to administration-backed candidate Edgardo Labella, who was also his vice mayor, Osmeña took to Facebook to post a heartfelt message to his supporters and constituents.

“I do not want a single person to feel sorry for me. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. I am not the priority. YOU are the priority. Everything I’ve done as mayor, I’ve done for Cebu,” he said on his post.

But his message reached beyond the internet communities of Cebu all the way to Zamboanga City. Marlon “Bong” Simbajon, a losing city council candidate there, seemed to be so inspired by Osmeña’s message that he decided to copy it – some parts word for word.

“I do not want a single person to feel sorry for me. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. I am not the priority. YOU are the priority. As a noble warrior and leader, I know how to accept defeat. To the winners, DO YOUR JOB, THE PEOPLE WILL BE WATCHING YOU! Work towards their expectations,” he said, only tweaking parts of the paragraph to fit his context.

To this, Osmeña said in his Facebook post, “do your own homework oi hehe.”

Simbajon is a radio broadcaster who anchors a news program with the RMN Network in Zamboanga City.

While there’s nothing wrong with being inspired by another leader’s words, perhaps Simbajon forgot an important rule in journalism. If you actually decide to use someone else’s words or work, always attribute. Otherwise, it’s plagiarism, a major crime in journalism. – Rappler.com