A Facebook (FB) post is claiming that former Justice secretary and senator Leila de Lima has ties to a lawyer disbarred for misusing his clients’ funds. This needs context.
A reader sent a request to VERA Files’ Messenger Misinformation Tipline to verify a Feb. 19 FB post by a blogger. The quote card with de Lima’s photo read:
“Atty. Tecson personally received the funds on his clients’ behalf but only remitted PHP 53 million, keeping the rest as his attorney’s fees and allegedly for the senatorial campaign of former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.”
The text is from a Feb. 19 Supreme Court (SC) press release detailing the decision to disbar Atty. Demosthenes Tecson for withholding funds that his clients alleged he had misused.
De Lima denied knowing Tecson and wrote to the SC on Feb. 21 demanding a public clarification of the matter and promising to take legal action to “clear her name.”
Tecson does not appear on the list of De Lima’s donors in the 2016 elections based on available records.
The post has since garnered 4,700 reactions, 271 comments and 536 shares. An identical quote card has also been circulated by other FB pages in the days following the SC press statement.
