Topic 12:

Doctrine of Privilege
Communications in pleadings
and Privilege Speech in
Congress
THE 1987 CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE
PHILIPPINES
• ARTICLE VI Section 11:
• A Senator or Member of the House of Representatives shall, in all
offenses punishable by not more than six years imprisonment, be
privileged from arrest while the Congress is in session. No Member
shall be questioned nor be held liable in any other place for any
speech or debate in the Congress or in any committee thereof.
• Purpose: It is intended to protect members of congress against
government pressure and intimidation aimed at influencing the
decision‐making prerogatives of Congress and its members.
• The following requirements must be observed:
1. That the remarks must be made while the legislature or the
legislative committee is functioning, that is in session
2. That they must be made in connection with the discharge of
official duties.
• To invoke the privilege of speech, the matter must be oral and must
be proven to be indeed privileged.
• Moreover, a senator‐lawyer cannot be disbarred or disciplined by the
Supreme Court for statements made during a privilege speech. The
senator‐lawyer’s privilege speech is not actionable criminally or in a
disciplinary proceeding under the Rules of Court.
 BETWEEN LAWYER AND CLIENT
• Rules of Court, Rule 130, Section 24 (b): An attorney cannot, without
the consent of his client, be examined as to any communication made
by the client to him, or his advice given thereon in the course of, or
with a view to, professional employment, nor can an attorney's
secretary, stenographer, or clerk be examined, without the consent of
the client and his employer, concerning any fact the knowledge of
which has been acquired in such capacity.
 REQUIREMENTS

1. There must be a lawyer-client relationship

2. There must be a communication by the client to the lawyer or
advice given thereon by the lawyer.
3. The communication was confidential
4. The consent of the client to the disclosure was not obtained
• The communication must be for the purpose of creating a lawyer-
client relationship or was given in the course of such relationship.
• The term communication includes the following:
a). Any data or information supplied by the client personally or through
confidential agents, either to the lawyer or to the lawyer’s employees.
This may have been supplied through any form of oral or written
communication.
b). All documents, objects or thing delivered to the lawyer except those
the existence and/or contents of which are or maybe known.
Thus titles to land, contracts, reply-communications, bank pass books,
dishonored checks, cannot be considered as confidential.
c). Acts or conduct by the client, such as physical demonstration of
actions or events, or giving a sample of his handwriting to show he is
not the falsifier.
d).The advice given by the lawyer to the client orally or through any
mode of written communication.
e).The identity of the client. As a matter of public policy a lawyer may
not invoke the privilege and refuse to divulge the name or identity of
the client except in the situation when the client’s name has an
independent significance such that disclosure would reveal the client’s
confidences.
• The identity may not be disclosed in the following situations:

1. where a strong probability exists that revealing the client’s name would implicate the
client in the very activity for which he sought the lawyer’s advise

2. Where the disclosure would open the client to civil liability

3. Where the government prosecutors have no case against the client and compelling the
lawyer to reveal his client’s name would furnish the only link that would form a chain of
testimony necessary to convict the client of a crime.

4. Where it is the identity of the client which is sought to be confidential

5. Those covered by the “Doctrine of Work Product”. The pleadings prepared by the lawyer
or his private files containing either facts and data obtained by him or resulting from his
own investigation or by any investigator hired by him; and/or his impressions or
conclusions whether reduced in writing or not, about the client or the clients cause.
The following communications are not covered and the lawyer may
reveal them:
a). those intended to be made public
b). or intended to be communicated to a third person
c). intended for an unlawful purpose or for a future crime or act
d). received from a third person not acting in behalf or as agent of the
client
e). those made in the presence of third persons
f). those which are irrelevant
g). the effects of a crime as well as weapons or instruments of a crime.
h). opinions on abstract questions or hypothetical questions of law
 Rules of Court, Rule 7, Section 3.
• Significance of the Signature of Counsel:
1. He has read the pleading;
2. That to the best of his knowledge, information or belief , there is
good ground to support it, and
3. It is not interposed for delay.
• Cases where a counsel is subject to disciplinary action:
1. Deliberately files an unsigned pleading;
2. Signs a pleading in violation of the Rules;
3. Alleges in the pleading scandalous or indecent matter or
4. Fails to promptly report to the court a change of his address
• Utterances made in the course of judicial proceedings, including all
kinds of pleadings, petitions and motions belong to the class of
communication that are absolutely privileged.
• The requirement of materiality and relevancy is imposed so that the
protection given to individuals in the interest of an efficient
administration of justice may not be abused as a cloak from beneath
which private malice may be gratified.
• CANON 21- A LAWYER SHALL PRESERVE THE CONFIDENCE AND
SECRETS OF HIS CLIENT EVEN AFTER THE ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATION
IS TERMINATED.

• CANON 15, RULE 15.02- A LAWYER SHALL BE BOUND BY THE RULE

ON PRIVILEGE COMMUNICATION IN RESPECT OF MATTERS DISCLOSED
TO HIM BY A PROSPECTIVE CLIENT
• REVISED PENAL CODE, ARTICLE 209- Betrayal of Public Trust by an
Attorney or Solicitor –Revelation of Secrets – In addition to the
proper administrative action, the penalty of prision correccional in its
medium period or a fine ranging from 200 to 1000 pesos, or both,
shall be imposed upon any attorney- at- law or solicitor who, by ay
malicious breach of professional duty or of inexcusable negligence or
ignorance, shall prejudice his client, or reveal any of the secrets of the
latter learned by him in his professional capacity.
• The same penalty shall be imposed upon any attorney- at- law or
solicitor who, having undertaken the defense of a client or having
received confidential information from said client in a case, shall
undertake the defense of the opposing party in the same case,
without the consent of the first client.