Lorna Regina "Loren" Bautista Legarda 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. 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.
Portrait during the 18th Congress
Legarda during a 2007 Philippine Military Academy ceremony
Legarda and her son, Leandro, during the 2010 election campaign period.
Official Philippine House of Representatives portrait of Legarda in 2019
Senate of the Philippines
The Senate of the Philippines is the upper house of Congress, the bicameral legislature of the Philippines with the House of Representatives as the lower house. The Senate is composed of 24 senators who are elected at-large under plurality-at-large voting.
Senate of the Philippines
Joint session of Philippine Legislature including the newly elected Senate, November 15, 1916
The post–World War II Philippine Senate in 1951: Cipriano P. Primicias, Sr., far left, debates Quintín Paredes, far right. In the middle are Justiniano Montano, Mariano Jesús Cuenco, Enrique B. Magalona, and Francisco Delgado; in the foreground is Edmundo Cea. Deliberations were once held at the Old Legislative Building.
Senate traditional photo. July 2022.