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 incumbent president pro tempore of the Senate of the Philippines since 2022.

This also makes her the first woman to serve as Senate President Pro Tempore in the upper chamber's history.

Before entering politics, she began her career as a news reporter until becoming a news anchor.

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, while her maternal grandmother was Carmen Gella 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-granduncle Vicente Gella was governor of the province while her great-granduncle was mayor of Sibalom.

A brother of her grandfather, Bartolome 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 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.

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.

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 (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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 (NAP) Champion by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2017.

She also authored the Eid'ul Fitr Holiday Law, Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003, and the Philippine Ear Research Institute Act.

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 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.

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.

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.

In 2018, Legarda became a Commissioner of the newly formed international organization, Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA).

She also chaired the Climate Vulnerable Forum, which encompasses 20 climate vulnerable countries.

Legarda was also the House Deputy Speaker during her three-year stint as the representative of Antique from 2019 to 2022.