Ombudsman spox keeps questioning Loren’s medical leave
The spokesperson for the Office of the Ombudsman continued to express doubt over the official reason given by Sen. Loren Legarda for her continued medical leave, which had been extended for almost a month now.
This was despite an earlier statement from Senate President Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian attesting to Legarda having a “serious illness.”
“Well, if [Legarda] really has a serious illness, then she should have requested just one medical leave, rather than getting repeated extensions,” Clavano said at a press conference on Friday.
Legarda and her son, Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste, are under investigation over the projects that the latter’s solar power company committed but allegedly failed to accomplish under the franchise awarded by the government.
Legarda first filed a medical leave on Aug. 3, days after Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla announced that both mother and son, as well as former Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, were being investigated for plunder and graft.
‘Increases suspicion’
Legarda filed the fourth extension of her medical leave until Sept. 2. Leviste also sought a two-month travel authority from the House, from July 26 to Sept. 24, Clavano earlier said.
“The fact that both the mother and son are out of the country adds to the speculation, or increases the suspicion, of the Office of the Ombudsman,” he said, noting that there’s a standing order for the two to submit their counteraffidavit.
Preliminary probe
“We hope that you (Legarda and Leviste) will remain in the country for now so that we can shed some light on what happened and allow the public to know the truth,” Clavano said, adding:
“That’s why we are flagging their travel at this point. .. it is really very suspicious that they are there [abroad], while they have a case here that requires them to answer and appear, and that they chose to leave the country at precisely this time.”
Investigators alleged that Legarda, Leviste and Cusi “conspired to secure exclusive government rights over the country’s solar energy resources through legislative and regulatory actions.”
Despite the awards, they said, “many of the projects were never developed as promised.”
The antigraft body said the terminated contracts of Leviste’s Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings Inc. (SPPPHI) resulted in more than P10.44 billion in unpaid financial obligations to the government.
Leviste, who founded SPPPHI in 2013 when he was just 20 years old, won more than 30 service contracts with the government.
Remulla said Leviste would not have won the contracts—awarded during the Duterte administration—without his senator mother.
‘Baseless allegation’
In an earlier statement, Legarda, the former chair of the powerful Senate committee on finance, described the allegations as “utterly false and baseless.”
“No public funds were involved. We are prepared to bring out the truth,” she said. “This baseless allegation is a smear on my person that is totally undeserved.”
“We remain confident that once the facts are laid bare, we will be vindicated and our names cleared,” Legarda said.
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