Senator Loren Legarda is poised to be the first woman to lead the Senate, with the backing of both the majority and the minority blocs, Senate President Tito Sotto III confirmed Thursday, though he debunked speculation of a “term-sharing.”

Legarda is set to be installed in the Senate’s top post before her term ends in 2028, concurrently with the end of the 20th Congress. 

Sotto said a “term-sharing” with Legarda was unnecessary, as he already agreed to relinquish the post pursuant to the  consensus reached by the majority to make Legarda the “first woman Senate president.” 

“That’s the plan. So it’s not really term-sharing. Because if it’s term-sharing, it would be one and a half or one year,” Sotto said in a radio interview. “The correct term is, we plan to make her Senate president towards the end of her term, end of [the] 20th Congress.”

This suggests that no power-grabbing is expected to emerge over the next few days amid persistent coup rumors to overthrow Sotto after five months at the helm.

Recall that in September last year, Sotto replaced then Senate president Chiz Escudero, who was ousted from the post at the height of the Senate’s probe into the alleged corruption scheme in flood control projects in which he is being implicated.

Legarda, on the contrary, was noticeably reluctant to answer questions from the press during an ambush interview on Thursday.

She said she has “no idea” about Sotto’s claims regarding a supposed leadership change, saying “I have to ask him what he meant.”

Talks of removing Sotto have been making rounds since over the weekend, with the minority allegedly courting Legarda—which forms part of the majority—to replace the Senate leader. 

This comes after a draft Blue Ribbon Committee report, recommending the filing of corruption charges against Senators Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, and Joel Villanueva—was leaked to the media earlier this week. 

Sotto and BRC chair Ping Lascon initially denied the authenticity of the 500-page draft leak report, though they later confirmed the inclusion of Escudero, Estrada, and Villanueva in the paper to be passed to the concerned agency for legal action.

Wednesday’s Senate session was filled with immense tension after it was suspended for over an hour and a half, and resumed with Legarda taking the rostrum in place of Sotto before she declared the session was adjourned. The session, however, ended with Sotto still being the Senate president.

Shortly after the adjournment, Sotto confirmed that there was a coup attempt, but it did not succeed after the majority blocked it. 

The majority and minority held a separate caucus before the 3 p.m. session, just as tension rose over the alleged shakeup.

Sotto confirmed that members of the minority were behind the persistent efforts to oust him in place of Legarda. 

Sotto earlier said if the attempts to oust him succeed, it could be due to his “strictness” in budget management, particularly “insertions,” and that another possible factor could be the sudden change in the leadership of the foreign relations committee, which was recently taken from opposition Senator Imee Marcos and handed to Senator Erwin Tulfo.

But presently, Sotto claimed that he still enjoys the support of 15 senators, enough to retain the chamber’s top post. Insiders, however, alleged that Legarda had already secured the needed13 votes to replace Sotto.

Earlier, Minority Leader Alan Cayetano said that “it was never a secret” for the minority to reclaim the majority from the current leadership under Sotto, though he added that they still lack the numbers to do so. 

The minority would need 13 votes to remove Sotto as Senate chief. At present, there are nine members in the opposition bloc. However, their numbers could drop by one due to the continued absence of Senator Bato de la Rosa, who has been absent since November due to an alleged warrant from the International Criminal Court.