Loren may rejoin Senate majority – spokesman

MANILA, Philippines — The camp of Sen. Loren Legarda is not ruling out the possibility of the lawmaker returning to the country and joining the majority bloc, saying shifting alliances is a regular feature of the upper chamber’s fluid politics.

“I will not rule that out. In the last four years there have been four Senate presidents. The majority has changed the last four years so I wouldn’t rule that out. It’s apparently a normal thing in the Senate,” Legarda’s spokesman Tony La Viña told One News yesterday.

He added that it would be natural for Legarda to maintain open lines with her peers, given her standing in the Senate.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she does that. I’m also not surprised if she’s talking to other senators because she’s a good senator, she’s very good with her colleagues, they actually love her, I will say that almost universally,” he added.

Asked whether Legarda’s departure from the Senate was a strategic bargaining chip for the administration to woo her back to its fold, La Viña said ongoing impeachment proceedings were distinct and instead pointed to the political fallout from corruption allegations raised against her son, Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste.

“I wouldn’t know that, you can also say otherwise that the charges are … but she actually doesn’t think that this has something to do with the impeachment because she knows Senate politics and it’s kinda…it can move any hour, any day,” La Viña explained.

“We actually think this is really about Leandro Leviste’s exposé on corruption, that’s the one that upset a lot of people and so that’s just politics,” he added.

Since Aug. 3, Legarda has been on medical leave from the Senate and was reportedly in France receiving treatment. Her latest extension of leave is valid until Oct. 9, making her absent from the chamber for two full months.

Her absence is among the reasons senators voted to adjust the voting denominator set by impeachment court presiding officer Francis Escudero.

Legarda’s prolonged absence also coincides with the Office of the Ombudsman’s plunder investigation into the senator and her son over the alleged multibillion-peso solar energy anomaly.