Several Facebook (FB) accounts, including a page of a lawyer who was a former Malacañang social media consultant, published an alleged exchange between Vice President Leni Robredo and former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. It needs context.
The supposed statement of Robredo in response to Enrile’s questions published in an unverified FB account using his name was from Atty. Leni Robredo, a satirical page pretending to be the vice president.
STATEMENT
On April 26, FB page Luminous by Trixie Cruz-Angeles & Ahmed Paglinawan, managed by the two lawyers, posted screenshots of Robredo and Enrile allegedly engaged in verbal sparring.
The images showed Robredo’s supposed response to Enrile questioning the vice president’s experience as a lawyer and the former senator’s subsequent reply. Robredo’s purported statement read:
“I was a developmental lawyer engaged in public interest cases like defending the land rights of Sumilao farmers.
If you don’t know what that means Mr. Juan Ponce Enrile, developmental lawyering is:
‘The practice of law fundamentally for individuals, communities and sectors that have been historically, culturally and economically marginalized and disenfranchised.’ (See: cas.upm.edu.ph:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/372)
But you probably don’t know that because as evident from your post and examples, you only know big-ticket or money-making law practices.
You defend the rich. I defend the poor. We are not the same.
xoxo,
Atty. Ma. Leonor G. Robredo
Roll No. 41533”
Source: Luminous by Trixie Cruz-Angeles & Ahmed Paglinawan, Oops, he did it again, April 26, 2022
The unverified FB account bearing Enrile’s name later replied to Robredo’s so-called answer and told the vice president that she is not a lawyer “in the full sense of the word” since her law practice experience was only for a year.
The comments indicate that the netizens did not know the post was satire. Under FB’s third-party fact-checking program, satire is a type of content that “uses irony, exaggeration, or absurdity for criticism or awareness, particularly in the context of political, religious, or social issues, but that a reasonable user would not immediately understand to be satirical.”
Read the full story on VERA Files Fact Check.
