De Lima: PNoy asked me to represent Leni

Senator-elect Leila de Lima on Wednesday revealed that outgoing President Benigno Aquino III asked her to help out Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo.

“The President asked me to represent Congresswoman Leni and it's quite an honor for me to accept,” De Lima said at a press conference at the UP-Ayala Technohub in Quezon City.

De Lima, who had just been proclaimed as senator, is the overall consultant of Robredo's legal team.

The senator-elect was an election lawyer before she was appointed by Aquino as secretary of the Department of Justice.

De Lima, meanwhile, clarified that Aquino did not directly tell her to joint Robredo's legal team.

“Hindi naman diretso pagkasabi na you need to help out. It was Congresswoman Leni herself who made the personal request sa akin. I readily accepted,” De Lima said.

The camp of Robredo has claimed that they will win the vice presidential election with a lead of more than 200,000 votes of Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.

Marcos's camp is also claiming that they will win the election.

The National Board of Canvassers will start the canvassing of votes for president and vice president at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

De Lima, as an election lawyer, has also represented former Senate President Manny Villar, Senators Koko Pimentel and Alan Peter Cayetano, former Isabela governor Grace Padaca, and former Pampanga governor Ed Panlilio.

She said she was with Cayetano in his disqualification case regarding his citizenship and served as his petitioner to disqualify a name sake.

Meanwhile, De Lima represented Pimentel in the special canvassing in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, when the lawmaker questioned the zero votes he supposedly got based from the certificates of canvass.

“I was the one who represented him doon sa special canvassing doon sa Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, minaniobra din iyan ng Comelec dati na doon gawin ang special canvassing sa Shariff Aguak,” De Lima said. —ALG/KBK, GMA News