Short answer. You can file a criminal complaint under Article 209 of the Revised Penal Code, which punishes a lawyer who reveals a client's secrets learned in his professional capacity. You may also pursue a separate disciplinary complaint and a civil claim for the damage the disclosure caused.
What the law says
shall prejudice his client, or reveal any of the secrets of the latter learned by him in his professional capacity
Revised Penal Code, Article 209 — Betrayal Of Trust By A Lawyer. Read the full provision →
What the law says
In addition to the proper administrative action
Revised Penal Code, Article 209 — Betrayal Of Trust By A Lawyer. Read the full provision →
What Article 209 punishes
The article reaches any attorney-at-law, or any person duly authorised to represent or assist a party to a case, who by a malicious breach of professional duty or by inexcusable negligence or ignorance shall prejudice his client, or reveal any of the secrets of the latter learned by him in his professional capacity. Two words carry the weight. Secrets is not limited to confessions of wrongdoing; it covers anything you told him that was not public and that you gave him in confidence — your finances, your family situation, your instructions, the weaknesses in your own case. And professional capacity is what ties the information to the duty. Something he learned as your neighbour over a fence is outside the article; something you told him across his desk is not.
It covers the consultation that never became a case
A common misunderstanding is that the duty begins only once a retainer is signed and a fee is paid. It does not. Information given while you were seeking legal help is given in a professional capacity, and the obligation of secrecy attaches at that point. It survives the matter as well: the duty does not expire when the case is decided, when you change lawyers, or when the lawyer stops practising. What the article does not punish is disclosure you authorised, or disclosure the law itself compels — a lawyer ordered by a court to produce something, for example, is not committing this offence. Note also that the article covers a non-lawyer authorised to represent or assist a party, not only members of the Bar.
The penalty, and the current peso amounts
The offence carries prisión correccional in its minimum period, or a fine of forty thousand to two hundred thousand pesos, or both. Those figures were set by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which revised the fines and property values across the whole Revised Penal Code. Older textbooks and websites still print the 1930 amounts, which are dramatically lower, so check which version of the Code your source is reproducing before quoting a number at anybody. The article also states that this penalty applies In addition to the proper administrative action, which is the Code's own signal that a criminal conviction is not meant to be the end of the matter.
Three remedies, running in parallel
The criminal complaint is filed with the prosecutor and is decided on the criminal standard, which is a demanding one. Separately, a disciplinary complaint travels the route that ends at the Supreme Court — the only body that can suspend or disbar a lawyer — and it is not blocked by, nor does it wait for, the criminal case. Third, you can sue for the damage the disclosure caused you: lost employment, a settlement destroyed, harm to your reputation. Nobody can promise you an outcome on any of these, and how far you get depends almost entirely on proof. So act while it exists — keep the message, post, pleading or recording in which the disclosure appears, note who received it and when, and take advice promptly, since these remedies have their own time limits.