Senator Loren Legarda is reportedly in talks to become the next Senate president, but the lawmaker told reporters on Thursday, February 5, that she had “no idea” about supposed changes in the Senate leadership.
Talk of a shakeup in the upper chamber started when Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said on X that an unidentified group of legislators “dangled” the Senate presidency to Legarda, before “floating the falsehood that it was Sen. Loren who volunteered to recruit warm bodies to pave the way for a new Senate majority.”
Inquirer reports that Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said it was the minority bloc behind the failed coup, and that Legarda, a member of the majority bloc, refused their offer.
On Wednesday, February 4, Legarda took over as presiding officer during a Senate session, with Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri calling her “Madam President.”
“It’s not official, but the understanding was in the latter part of [Sotto’s] term as Senate president of the 20th Congress, we will elect the first woman Senate president in the history of Congress,” Zubiri told reporters on Thursday. During his term as Senate president, from July 2022 to May 2024, Legarda served as Senate president pro tempore.
Track Record
Legarda is currently the country’s longest-serving female senator, having served one six-year term every decade since 1998. From 2019 to 2022, she served as Antique’s at-large representative, a post now held by her brother, Congressman Antonio Legarda Jr. Her son, Cong. Leandro Leviste, also currently serves as the representative of Batangas’ first district.
The senator’s website touts her as an advocate for the environment, education, and cultural preservation. She co-sponsored and authored the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, which was passed in 2017 and institutionalized free tuition for state and local universities and colleges, as well as the Reproductive Health Law, and the Climate Change Act of 2009.
Since the 19th Congress, she has also served as the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Culture and the Arts.
Legarda won a fourth Senate term in 2022 under the UniTeam slate, allying with now-foes President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte. In previous years, she ran under the conservative Lakas-CMD Party, the Genuine Opposition coalition against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the center-right Nacionalista Party, and the Nationalist People’s Coalition, which is chaired by Sotto.
If the rumors are true, and Legarda does pursue the Senate leadership soon, it would make the second change in the presidency in less than a year, after Sotto replaced former Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero in September 2025. It would also make her the first female Senate president in the country’s history.
