2. Loren Legarda
Lorna Regina "Loren" Bautista Legarda (born January 28,
1960) is a Filipina politician, environmentalist, cultural worker,
and former journalist who is currently serving as a Senator and
the president pro tempore of the Senate of the
Philippines since 2022. 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.
3. 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.[2][3] She failed short again
vying 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. [1] 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 (GCA).[4] She
also chaired the Climate Vulnerable Forum, which encompasses 20
climate vulnerable countries.
4. For her environmental work, Legarda has received numerous accolades;
she was awarded 2001 UNEP Laureate as declared by the United Nations
Environment Programme,[1] 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,[1] a National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Champion by the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2017.[5] 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.[6] 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[7][8] and Cavaliere in Italy.
5. Early life
Loren Legarda was born on January 28, 1960, in Malabon (then a
municipality in Rizal) 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,[10] while her maternal grandmother was Carmen Gella
Bautista of Pandan, Antique.[11] 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.[11] Her great-granduncle Vicente Gella was
governor of the province while her great-granduncle was mayor
of Sibalom.[11] A brother of her grandfather, Bartolome Gella, also
served as governor of Antique.
6. As a teenager, she appeared as a print and television
model.[12] She attended Assumption College from primary
to high school,[13] 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.[12] She pursued
post-graduate courses on special studies towards
professional designation in journalism from the University
of California, Los Angeles.
7. 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.[15] 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.[12]
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 (TOYM) from
the Philippine Jaycees (1992), The Outstanding Women in the Nation's
Service (TOWNS) Award (1995), and the Benigno Aquino Award for
Journalism (1995), among more than 30 awards.
8. Political career
1998 Senate bid, first term[edit]
Legarda ran for the Senate in 1998 under the Lakas-NUCD-
UMDP Party.[12] 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 (now TV5) 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.
9. 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.
10. 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 (UNEP) in Turin, Italy, for
her work on the environment in 2001.[15] 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.
11. 2004 vice presidential bid
In 2003, Legarda left Lakas–CMD (after Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo broke her pledge not to run again for president) 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 (PET), dismissed Legarda's electoral protest
against de Castro.
12. 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.[12] In her second term as senator,
Legarda authored the Expanded Senior Citizens Law,[17] the Climate Change Act,
Clean Air Act, Renewable Energy Act, the Magna Carta for Micro, Small and
Medium Enterprises (MSME) Act, Barangay Kabuhayan Act, the Magna Carta on
Women,[12] 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'.[18] She co-authored the National
Cultural Heritage Act. Aside from her legislative work, she also established
the Luntiang Pilipinas (Green Philippines) 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.
13. 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",[19] 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.[20] In
October 2009, the Climate Change Act was passed.[12] 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”.[10] She
was a member of the Philippine delegation during the 2009
Copenhagen Summit
14. 2010 vice presidential bid
On July 14, 2009, Legarda expressed her interest to run as
president during the 2010 elections.[21] On October 23,
2009, during the launch of her humanitarian program
"Lingkod Loren in Luneta",[12] she formally declared her
intention to run for vice president in 2010 under Nationalist
People's Coalition with the platform
of environmentalism.[22] After Francis Escudero, expected
to run for president, left the NPC,[23] she decided that it
would be best to stick with the Nacionalista Party's
presidential candidate, Manny Villar, as a guest-running
mate.
15. 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.[24] She would later go to
the United Nations to deposit the Philippines ratification for
the International Criminal Court membership.[25] As a result of Koko
Pimentel's win in his case against Juan Miguel 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.
