THE National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has confirmed that Sen. Loren Legarda and her son, Batangas 1st District Rep. Leandro Leviste, left the country on Aug. 2, before they could be subpoenaed in plunder and graft cases in connection with multibillion-peso solar energy projects.
NBI Director Melvin Matibag told reporters that immigration records show that Leviste flew to Hong Kong on Aug. 2, while Legarda took a separate flight on the same day, transiting through Hong Kong en route to France.
Matibag said a subpoena for Leviste was issued on Monday and made public on Friday.
Despite his absence, Leviste was able to get hold of a lawyer, who has requested the NBI for copies of relevant documents and details on the nature of the investigation, Matibag said.
The bureau denied the lawyer’s request, citing the confidential nature of the fact-finding inquiry.
Matibag said Leviste will be given a chance to appear before investigators on a rescheduled date.
The NBI has invited Leviste and former Negros Occidental congressman Jacinto “Jing” Paras as part of its investigation into an alleged plot to frame Executive Secretary Ralph Recto.
The agency has emphasized that Legarda and her son were not considered as respondents or persons of interest but as resource persons as the case buildup continues.
The Office of the Ombudsman has separately filed plunder and graft charges against Legarda and Leviste over the alleged irregular implementation of solar energy projects worth approximately P10 billion.
The charges stemmed from accusations that they conspired to secure government contracts and other benefits through legislative and regulatory actions related to solar energy resources.
Bureau of Immigration (BI) spokesman Dana Sandoval also confirmed on Friday that Legarda and Leviste left the country on Aug. 2.
Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said he was not informed that Legarda had left the country, but added that she does not need a travel authority from the Senate if the trip is personal.
“I don’t have any information about her foreign trip. We haven’t talked about her trip yet. If it’s a personal trip, there’s no need for travel authority from the Senate,” Gatchalian said on Friday.
Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. said, however, that Legarda’s office had informed the Senate Secretariat that she would go on medical leave.
Bantug said the senator’s chief of staff sent a letter on Aug. 3 advising the Office of the Secretary that “Sen. Loren Legarda will be on medical leave from 3 to 5 August 2026.”
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla on Friday said he does not think Legarda and Leviste planned to flee the cases filed against them.
“I don’t think they will escape. They will return. We believe that they will return,” Remulla told reporters.
But he added: “They might want to go home in handcuffs if they don’t return.”
One of the organizers of protests against Vice President Sara Duterte said Legarda and Leviste’s leaving the country is “not a good look” for their cases before the Office of the Ombudsman.
“Definitely not a good look in light of the cases against them,” Tindig Pilipinas co-convenor Kiko Aquino-Dee told The Manila Times in a Messenger chat on Friday.
“If she and Rep[resentative] Leviste come back by then, I guess no harm no foul. But definitely a bad look,” Aquino-Dee said.
He said Legarda is not one of the frequent speakers in the impeachment trial of the vice president, and the impact of her absence “will be more on the voting should she be gone that long. Even then, it’s 16 to convict, so her non-vote would have the same effect as her voting with the Duterte-aligned senators as I understand it.”
