Legarda regrets siding with minority group, says Lacson

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Loren Legarda admitted she was wrong to join the group led by now Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano when he snatched the Senate presidency after a leadership coup on May 11, according to Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

“The last time we talked, she admitted that she made a mistake. I told her to forget about it, and that it’s over,” Lacson said in an interview with radio dwIZ over the weekend.

Legarda also lamented that Senate Pro Tempore Vicente Sotto III was not answering her messages when she tried to reach out to him.

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Cayetano took over the Senate presidency on May 11 after his faction, composed mostly of Duterte allies, ousted Sotto after it attained a slim majority when Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, now a fugitive from an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, suddenly reappeared to support him after six months of hiding.

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In an en banc resolution dated Aug. 26 but only released to the public recently, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition challenging the legality of the Senate session on June 3 that installed Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian as Senate President Pro Tempore and acting Senate President, and resulted in the ouster of then-Senate President Cayetano.

According to the Supreme Court, the petition filed by lawyers Valeriano Loon and Zigfred Diaz failed to sufficiently establish that the respondents committed grave abuse of discretion in holding the session.

The group of Cayetano, including Legarda, had also filed a petition before the high court to challenge the legitimacy of the Senate leadership of Gatchalian. But Cayetano’s media officer said the recent Supreme Court ruling did not cover the petition filed by the minority bloc.

Saddened

When Legarda joined the Cayetano bloc, Lacson admitted that her decision saddened him and caught him by surprise.

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Lacson previously said that while they accepted “political reality,” he felt sad that Legarda, one of the original members of the Sotto-led minority, and later majority, opted to join the Cayetano group without informing them first.

“My sentiment, and I think my colleagues share this, it is sad that Sen. Legarda…did not inform us of her decision,” he said in an earlier statement. “I am not taking anything away from her decision to join Sen. Cayetano, but we just hoped she would at least have told us, instead of surprising us.”

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READ: Legarda on SC petition filed by allies: There’s constitutional controversy

Lacson said he was able to discuss with some senators Legarda’s possible rejoining the majority.

“We talked about it, not all of us, but a small group of us in the majority, she is welcome… she is welcome to come back,” he said.

“It’s her decision… but you know, there’s a British saying ‘[It ain’t over] ’till the fat lady sings’. Until it doesn’t happen, she’s not in the majority. … if this is news, this is a developing story,” said Lacson.

Legarda’s spokesperson Tony La Viña earlier said he is not ruling out the possibility of the senator joining the majority bloc, saying shifting alliances is a regular character of the Senate’s fluid politics.

Legarda has been on a medical leave since Aug. 3. She is reportedly in France seeking treatment for a “serious” lung-related illness, as other senators had also claimed. Legarda, however, has not publicly disclosed the details of her condition.

Preliminary investigation

The senator reportedly left the country on Aug. 2, only a few days after the Office of the Ombudsman announced that she and her son, Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste, would be subject to a preliminary investigation over P10 billion “ghost” solar power projects.

Lacson advised Legarda to return home if her health permits.

“I understand her condition. But if she can, if her health permits, I would encourage her to come home. First, the investigation against them is very preliminary. But that’s only my advice. It’s her decision actually. After all, at the end of the day, that’s her personal decision,” he said.

Legarda’s absence also figured in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

In a 13-1 vote, the impeachment court earlier decided that the constitutional provision setting the conviction threshold at two-thirds of the senator-judges would apply only to those actually participating in the trial. The ruling effectively reduced the required number from 16 votes to 14 votes, if based on the 20 senator-judges currently in attendance.

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Apart from Legarda and Dela Rosa, two other senators have not been able to attend the impeachment proceedings: Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta, who are both detained on plunder charges. /cb