Translating != Plagiarism!!!
This seems to be what one Filipino Senator (a newly elected Senate President on top of that) firmly believes and considers to what constitutes as plagiarism.
In a recent interview done with social news network Rappler, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III continued to deny allegations of plagiarism after he was accused 6 years ago of copying US Sen. Robert Kennedy's speech and a blog post from one Sarah Pope, into his own speech on August 2012 against the legislation of the Reproductive Health Bill in the Philippines.
Source: Rappler Official Twitter Account
During the recent interview, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III commented:
They said that I plagiarized! Of course not. It was an inspirational message coming from a pastor that was used by the Americans, and if we use it and translate it into Tagalog, there's nothing wrong with that. It's not plagiarism, because if you think that's plagiarism, then you must think that 'Bayang Magiliw' is plagiarized because it was originally in Spanish, and somebody changed it into English, and somebody translated it into Tagalog unofficially. So is that plagiarism?
Before we answer his question, let us first define what exactly is Plagiarism.
Plagiarism - The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
This is what Google and the Dictionary have to say about Plagiarism.
So to answer his question above: YES!
Translating someone's work and taking it as your own is considered plagiarism.
One funny thing about his comment above is that, he is comparing the translation of a national anthem (which is not owned by a person or individual or a group) to his willful act of plagiarism.
When one is chosen as a national song, the copyrights becomes public domain to all the citizens and enterprises in that country. It is owned by the people and posterity.
I'm not even gonna comment on how a Senate President can make a major mistake of calling the Philippine National Anthem as "Bayang Magiliw" (the first line of the national anthem) and not "Lupang Hinirang".