Prosecutors at the Office of the Ombudsman have advanced to the final evaluation stage in a case that could send a sitting senator and her congressman son to the anti-graft court over a renewable-energy franchise granted seven years ago.
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla confirmed on Friday, July 31, that complaints for plunder and multiple graft violations lodged against Senator Loren Legarda and Batangas 1st District Representative Leandro Leviste have reached preliminary investigation, meaning investigators will soon determine whether formal charges should be brought before the courts. The complaints center on the solar power ventures tied to Leviste.
Spelling out the charges, Remulla said the respondents face plunder alongside offenses under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. “Plunder, tapos (then) [Republic Act No.] 3019, 3(h), 3(i), and 3(e). Conflict of interest is one of them,” said Remulla. Sections 3(e), 3(h), and 3(i) of RA 3019 cover, among other acts, causing undue injury to the government, financial interest in transactions requiring official intervention, and prohibited direct or indirect stakes in government contracts. RAPPLER
At the heart of the dispute is Republic Act No. 11357, the measure that handed Solar Para sa Bayan Corporation a 25-year, nonexclusive legislative franchise to build and run solar microgrids in remote and off-grid communities. The law was signed on July 31, 2019 — exactly seven years to the day before Friday’s announcement — during the administration of then-President Rodrigo Duterte, with Alfonso Cusi serving as energy secretary at the time.
Remulla has argued for months that a national franchise of that kind was never meant to be treated as a tradable asset. Since January, he has publicly accused Leviste of “flipping” the solar business to the Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Meralco group, a maneuver the Ombudsman characterized as an abuse of a privilege deemed vital to the country. In one radio appearance he questioned how a young lawmaker whose mother sits in the Senate could hand off such a grant.
Leviste, who was proclaimed winner of the Batangas 1st District race in May 2025 with a record vote count, has rejected the accusation that he profited from the franchise. He has maintained that Solar Para sa Bayan ceased operating in 2022 and that its franchise was, in his reading of the law, automatically revoked after two years of dormancy. He has said he lost money on the venture after failing to secure permits for its projects — a failure he attributes to circumstances outside his company’s control.
That reading has been contested. Energy Secretary Sharon Garin, in a separate track from Friday’s Ombudsman disclosure, has said a franchise cannot be treated as void simply because a holder decides it lapsed, arguing that only the body that issued it holds that authority. Garin’s department filed its own criminal complaint at the Department of Justice in May against Leviste and several corporate officers of the solar firm, alleging they neglected obligations under RA 11357. As of that filing, the DOJ said the complaint had not yet been docketed and was still under evaluation.
The regulatory fallout has been steep. The Department of Energy imposed a penalty running into the billions of pesos on the company for failing to deliver on renewable-energy commitments, tied to projects critics have likened to non-existent undertakings.
Legarda, a veteran legislator, has weathered graft complaints before; a 2013 case before the Ombudsman accused her of failing to declare a Makati property in her asset statements, an allegation she denied. Earlier in 2026, former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza publicly accused her of trying to sway the approval of the franchise founded by her son, though those claims had not translated into formal charges at the time they circulated.
