Loren Legarda
Lorna Regina "Loren" Bautista Legarda is a Filipino politician, environmentalist, cultural worker, and former journalist who has served as a senator of the Philippines since 2022, following previous terms spanning from 1998 to 2004 and 2007 to 2019. During her tenure, she served as president pro tempore of the Senate of the Philippines from 2022 to 2024. Before entering politics, she began her career as a news reporter until becoming a news anchor. She previously served three terms in the Senate from 1998 to 2004 and from 2007 to 2019. She is the longest-serving female Senator in the history of the Senate, and the only female in the Philippines to top two senatorial elections: 1998 and 2007. Legarda was also the House Deputy Speaker during her three-year stint as the representative of Antique from 2019 to 2022.
Legarda ran for vice president in 2004 as the running mate of Fernando Poe Jr., but controversially lost to Noli de Castro, Legarda contested the result on an electoral protest where she also lost. She fell short again vying for the same position in 2010 as the running mate of Manny Villar.
Legarda is an advocate of climate change awareness and has numerous achievements in the fields of social development and human rights advocacy along with her work in journalism. Her legislative work is focused on education, indigenous people rights, culture, women's rights, children's rights, and the environment. Some the notable laws she authored and co-authored include the Climate Change Act, Clean Water Act, Renewable Energy Act, Magna Carta of Women, Anti-Domestic Violence Act, National Cultural Heritage Act, Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012, the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, and the Universal Healthcare Law. Alongside her legislative work, she has also represented the Philippines to UNESCO multiple times. In 2018, Legarda became a Commissioner of the newly formed international organization, Global Commission on Adaptation. She also chaired the Climate Vulnerable Forum, which encompasses 20 climate vulnerable countries.
For her environmental work, Legarda has received numerous accolades; she was awarded 2001 UNEP Laureate as declared by the United Nations Environment Programme, a 2008 Regional Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for Asia and the Pacific as declared by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, a National Adaptation Plan Champion by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2017. She was declared by the United Nations as a UN Global Champion for Resilience in 2015. She was the 2016 recipient of the prestigious Dangal ng Haraya Patron of Arts and Culture. She has been named as honorary princess and member by numerous indigenous people communities in the Philippines due to her support for indigenous people's rights since the 1970s. She was honored as a Chevalier in France and Cavaliere in Italy.
Early life
Loren Legarda was born on January 28, 1960, in Malabon as Lorna Regina Bautista Legarda, the only daughter of Antonio Cabrera Legarda and Maria Salome Basilia "Bessie" Gella Bautista. Her maternal grandfather was Jose P. Bautista, editor-in-chief of the pre-Martial Law newspaper, The Manila Times, while her maternal grandmother was Carmen Gella de Bautista of Pandan, Antique. Legarda's maternal great-grandfather, Ariston Rendon Gella, was a member of the Malolos Congress that crafted the Philippine Constitution of the First Philippine Republic. Her great-great-uncle Vicente Gella was governor of the province while her great-granduncle was mayor of Sibalom. A brother of her grandfather, Bartolomé Gella, also served as governor of Antique.As a teenager, she appeared as a print and television model. She attended Assumption College from primary to high school, where she was a grade school valedictorian. She graduated cum laude from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in broadcast communications and was President of the UP Broadcast Association. She pursued post-graduate courses on special studies towards professional designation in journalism from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Career in journalism
Legarda began a career in journalism as a reporter for RPN, during which she covered topics including Imelda Marcos' trip to Kenya and the People Power Revolution. During this period, she obtained a master's degree in National Security Administration from the National Defense College of the Philippines, graduating at the top of the class with gold medals for Academic Excellence and Best Thesis. Later, she would move to the reopened ABS-CBN. She became the co-anchor of the television newscast, The World Tonight with Angelo Castro, Jr., and became the host of the current affairs series, The Inside Story.As a journalist, Loren earned the Gawad Cultural Center of the Philippines, Catholic Mass Media Hall of Fame, Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas Golden Dove Award, Ten Outstanding Young Men from the Philippine Jaycees, The Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service Award, and the Benigno Aquino Award for Journalism, among more than 30 awards.
Political career
1998 Senate bid, first term
Legarda ran for the Senate in 1998 under the Lakas-NUCD-UMDP Party. She was elected with more than 15 million votes, rendering her the highest number of votes in that year's election and becoming the second woman to top a Philippine senatorial election. Upon Legarda filing her candidacy as senator in late 1997, Tina Monzon-Palma who came from rival ABC and was the anchor of The Big News, transferred to ABS-CBN in order to replace her on The World Tonight at the same time and joining Angelo Castro, Jr. in order to run the latter for this election. In 1999, the newscast was replaced by Pulso: Aksyon Balita on ABS-CBN and was moved to the ABS-CBN News Channel, where it has aired since.During her first six years in the Senate, Legarda authored legislation benefiting women's and children's rights, such as the Anti-Domestic Violence Act which seeks to uphold and protect the basic human rights of women and their children, the Anti-Child Labor law which limits the employment of children below 15 years old, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act which aims to protect victims of human trafficking, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Law which created the National Solid Waste Management Commission, and the Tropical Fabric Law. She also authored the Eid'ul Fitr Holiday Law, Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003, and the Philippine Ear Research Institute Act.
Legarda was named as one of the "Global Leaders for Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2000, and was awarded by the United Nations Environmental Program in Turin, Italy, for her work on the environment in 2001. Legarda played a role in the 2000–01 impeachment trial of Joseph Estrada that sparked the Second EDSA Revolution, voting to examine the envelope containing evidence of alleged corruption of the Estrada administration. She was later chosen to be the Senate's Majority Floor Leader from 2001 to 2004, becoming the first woman to hold the position.
2004 vice presidential bid
In 2003, Legarda left Lakas–CMD and joined the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino coalition of Fernando Poe, Jr. as an Independent during the 2004 elections. She lost the election to Noli de Castro, the running mate of Arroyo, under a narrow margin of 3.9%.On January 18, 2008, in a 21-page resolution, penned by Senior Justice Leonardo Quisumbing, the Supreme Court of the Philippines, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, dismissed Legarda's electoral protest against de Castro.
2007 Senate bid, second term
In 2007, Legarda decided to run again for Senate under the banner of the Genuine Opposition coalition. She won, receiving more than 18 million votes, which allowed her to become the top vote-getter in that election. In her second term as senator, Legarda authored the Expanded Senior Citizens Law, the Climate Change Act, Clean Air Act, Renewable Energy Act, the Magna Carta for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Act, Barangay Kabuhayan Act, the Magna Carta on Women, University of the Philippines Charter of 2008, Bacolor Rehabilitation Council Act, Tourism Act of 2009, Universal Newborn Hearing Screening and Intervention Act of 2009, Food and Drug Administration Act of 2009, and the Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act. The Climate Change Act was lauded by the United Nations as the 'best in the world'. She co-authored the National Cultural Heritage Act. Aside from her legislative work, she also established the Luntiang Pilipinas foundation, an organization aimed to aid the Philippines in attaining its United Nations mandate for reforestation, where the target was set by the UN at 2009.In 2008, she was chosen as "United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Asia Pacific Regional Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation", and she participated in the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction, the BBC World Debate: ‘Prevent or React’, and the Forum on the Human Impact of Climate Change in Geneva, Switzerland. In October 2009, the Climate Change Act was passed. She filed this bill two years ago, citing inspiration from the Albay Declaration, the outcome document of the First National Conference on Climate Change Adaptation, as it called for “the passage of a policy prioritizing climate change adaptation in the national agenda”. She was a member of the Philippine delegation during the 2009 Copenhagen Summit.
2010 vice presidential bid
On July 14, 2009, Legarda expressed her interest to run as president during the 2010 elections. On October 23, 2009, during the launch of her humanitarian program "Lingkod Loren in Luneta", she formally declared her intention to run for vice president in 2010 under Nationalist People's Coalition with the platform of environmentalism. After Francis Escudero, expected to run for president, left the NPC, she decided that it would be best to stick with the Nacionalista Party's presidential candidate, Manny Villar, as a guest-running mate.Legarda lost her bid for the Philippine vice presidency to Jejomar Binay, placing third in the 2010 Philippine presidential elections. As a result, she continued her term in the Senate. In 2010, Legarda was given chairmanship for the Senate committees on climate change, cultural communities, and foreign affairs. She would later go to the United Nations to deposit the Philippines ratification for the International Criminal Court membership. As a result of Koko Pimentel's win in his case against Migz Zubiri, Legarda requested the Supreme Court to allow them to retrieve documents that they submitted as evidence for her electoral protest against de Castro for the reopening of the investigation of electoral cheating in the 2004 and 2007 elections.