Mark Joseph Solis

Mark Joseph Tajo Solis is a Filipino and a Political Science student from the University of the Philippines, He has been accused of plagiarizing photographs from Flickr and submitting these photographs to various photography contests and claiming them as his own.

Education

Mark Joseph Solis was a Political Science graduate of University of the Philippine and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Public Administration at the UP-National College of Public Administration and Governance. Solis was also an exchange student and JASSO scholar at the Kyushu University in Japan

Plagiarism controversy

The latest plagiarism controversy he is facing concerns the entry he submitted to the 2nd Calidad Humana National Essay Photography Competition organized by the Chilean embassy in Manila, which won him first place. The photograph entry he submitted belonged to Gregory John Smith, a social entrepreneur with the global network Ashoka and founder of the Children At Risk Foundation in Brazil. The photograph was originally titled, Neptune, King of the Sea. Smith took the photograph in 2006 in Brazil. Solis passed the photograph to the competition with the title, The Mettle of the Filipino Spirit. Solis claimed that the subject is AbOUT a boy "who helps his father in farming seaweeds along a coastal community in Zamboanga province". Solis later admitted committing plagiarism, wrote a letter of apology to Gregory Smith, and claimed that his family's financial condition made him commit the act.

He is also reported to have issued an appeal to keep the cash prize of $1000.000 for one "winning" stolen photo, citing poverty as the main reason. The poverty issue, however, is disputed by a netizen, Valte, who used to work with Solis, claiming that Solis' house in Las Piñas plus his expensive gadgets negate this poverty claim. It is further stated that Solis is involved in another controversy by claiming to have done a thesis for his undergraduate degree of Political Science, which received 1.25. Valte said that a faculty member of the Political Science Department where Solis was from stated that there is no undergraduate thesis in the Political Science program where Solis belongs. It is also stated that Solis' other claim of leading the research arm of the Philippine Society of Public Administration (PSPA) could be far from the truth. Valte states: “He (Solis) was contracted for my project Dec. 1, 2012 and unless this is where he spent those times that he was absent from work, there is no way that he could have been ‘leading’ the research arm of PSPA." Valte recommended the pre-termination of Solis' contract effective March 8, 2013.