The Supreme Court (SC) has held a Bar review coach in contempt for spreading false information about the 2023 Bar Examinations on Facebook.
In a per curiam decision, the SC en banc found Edgar S. Dizon, administrator of the Facebook group Bar Law for Dummies, guilty of indirect contempt and fined him P30,000.
The SC also ordered the removal of Dizon’s name from the list of 2016 Bar passers and warned him against further engaging in the unauthorized practice of law.
The case stemmed from a Sept. 21, 2023 post from the Bar Law for Dummies Facebook group and the account Tsidkenu Dizon claiming, among other things, that the 2023 Bar exams would be “sorted, checked, and corrected by means of artificial intelligence (AI).”
The post also told examinees: “ALWAYS START WITH YES or NO. Yan ang unang hahanapin ng AI Checking to sort out the correct answers.”
The SC said the post caused confusion and alarm among Bar examinees and disrupted the work of Bar officials, who had to investigate the source and issue an advisory clarifying that the exams would be checked by four human examiners for each subject.
The SC ruled that Dizon’s post unlawfully interfered with the conduct of the Bar examinations and undermined public confidence in the integrity of the exams and the Court.
It also found Dizon liable for unauthorized practice of law for conducting Bar review coaching sessions and authoring review materials despite not having taken his lawyer’s oath.
The SC said Dizon showed no remorse by noting that he refused to remove the post, demanded an apology from the Court and threatened legal action.
The SC warned Dizon against further unauthorized practice of law.#