Loren Legarda ‘raring’ to return after treatment – spox
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Loren Legarda is “raring to come back” to the Philippines as soon as possible, her spokesperson Tony La Viña said Thursday.
La Viña told the Inquirer in an interview that Legarda will return as soon as she finishes undergoing treatment in France for a serious lung disease that can flare up whenever she is under stress.
He added that he could not go into the specifics of her condition since it was privileged information, saying only that it may be an autoimmune disease the senator has had for a long time.
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“When treatment is done, that’s when she will return. I don’t know if there’s a specific date,” he said.
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READ: Legarda files sixth medical leave extension
Legarda first went on medical leave from Aug. 3 to Aug. 5 although she has not disclosed her condition. She has since sought five more extensions, the latest one covering Oct. 5 to Oct. 9.
She 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 undergo preliminary investigation over P10 billion worth of “ghost” solar power projects.
Leviste, according to the National Bureau of Investigation, also flew out of the country on Aug. 2, although on a separate flight. This was days before the NBI issued a subpoena against him over allegations that he and several others were behind a “honey trap” plot that targeted Executive Secretary Ralph Recto.
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La Viña made the statements also amid questions about whether the senator, who is aligned with the minority, would still be able to vote in the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte.
Asked whether Legarda would return to the country should the complaint against her before the Ombudsman proceed, he said this would depend on her condition and treatment status at the time.
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“But she’s raring to come back. She wants to return, you know, as soon as possible,” La Viña said, adding that Legarda’s desire to return was “not so much [because of the] impeachment [trial] but her advocacies.”
No flight
He also pushed back against suggestions that her continued absence was meant to evade the allegations against her.
“There’s no flight here. So there’s no evasion,” he said, adding that there was no warrant of arrest against the senator.
“She’s not running away from anything,” La Viña said, maintaining that Legarda had nothing to do with her son’s solar business.
According to him, the senator was responding to the allegations through her lawyers, who had filed their counter affidavits before the Ombudsman.
Asked if Legarda also shared Senators Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano’s view that the cases against some senator-judges were meant to pressure them into voting in favor of impeachment, La Viña said that Legarda disagreed.
“I asked her about that and she said that she does not see it that way. This is not about the impeachment,” he added.
Instead, La Viña attributed the controversy involving mother and son to Leviste’s anti-corruption campaign in the House of Representatives.
“Because obviously, he ruffled feathers in the House,” he said.
At the same time, La Viña said he believes that Legarda is monitoring the impeachment proceedings, particularly the Senate’s decision on the conviction threshold.
The impeachment court on Wednesday amended the threshold ruling so that the two-thirds needed for conviction will be computed based on senators legally and factually capable of participating at the time of voting, rather than a fixed 16 votes.
La Viña, however, was unsure if Legarda would be able to vote since she had not participated in the trial.
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When told that Sen. Erwin Tulfo had said in a press briefing that senators physically present on voting day may cast their vote, he expressed doubt over which interpretation would ultimately apply. /cb
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