Senator Loren Legarda is poised to be the first woman to lead the Senate, with the backing of both the majority and minority blocs, Senate President Tito Sotto III confirmed Thursday, though he debunked “term-sharing” speculations.
Legarda will be installed in the Senate’s top post before her term ends in 2028, concurrently with the end of the 20th Congress, according to Sotto.
Sotto averred that a “term-sharing” arrangement with Legarda would be 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 toward the end of her term, end of the 20th Congress.”
Senate Majority Leader Migz Zubiri separately admitted that he had floated the idea of installing Legarda as Senate president, initially in jest.
Zubiri said Sotto agreed on the condition that the transition would happen only after the Senate transfers to its new building in Taguig, likely in the latter part of 2027.
This suggests that no power grab is expected to emerge over the next few days amid earlier 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 at the height of the Senate’s probe into the alleged corruption scheme in flood control projects, where he was implicated.
Escudero was accused of receiving millions in campaign donations for the 2022 elections from a flood control proponent, Lawrence Lubiano, president of Centerways Construction and Development Inc.
Zubiri, who also previously served as Senate president in 2022, relinquished the post in May 2024 amid a coup plot to install Escudero as his replacement. He said the supposed arrangement with Legarda was meant to keep the leadership within the majority bloc.
Leaked report
Legarda 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.”
Zubiri, however, said Legarda was aware of the arrangement and was merely being “humble” in downplaying it, adding that she is “very well enabled and very qualified” to become Senate president, citing her decades of experience in Congress.
Talks of removing Sotto have been making the rounds since over the weekend, with the minority allegedly courting Legarda — who forms part of the majority — to replace the Senate leader.
Speculation intensified after minority senators, including Imee Marcos and Jinggoy Estrada, were seen visiting Legarda’s office on Wednesday.
This came 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 Lacson initially denied the authenticity of the 500-page draft leaked 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 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 adjourned.
The session, however, ended with Sotto hanging on as 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 separate caucuses before the 3 p.m. session, just as tension rose over the alleged shakeup.
Coup efforts
Sotto confirmed that members of the minority were behind the persistent efforts to oust him in place of Legarda. He said if the attempts to oust him succeed, it could be due to his “strictness” in budget management, particularly on “insertions.”
Another possible factor, Sotto added, 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.
Sotto claimed he still enjoyed the support of 15 senators, enough to retain the chamber’s top post. Insiders, however, alleged that Legarda had already secured the needed 13 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 dela Rosa, who has been absent since November due to an alleged warrant from the International Criminal Court.