NO WORD BEST describes Rep. Leandro Leviste– who talks like a loose cannon against fellow legislators, the President and even his own mother, Sen. Loren Legarda– than what Executive Secretary Ralph Recto said of him as a “bitter brat” and a “natural-born liar.”
The usually smiling Recto minced no words as he got peeved by Leviste’s accusation linking the ‘little president’ to the public works scandal during a privilege speech on Monday as the latter called for an investigation of Recto’s alleged connection with Construction Workers Solidarity partylist Rep. Edwin Gardiola.
In a strongly worded statement, Recto said he decided to finally break his silence due to the persistent slander against him by a “natural born liar.”
Leviste claimed Leandro tried to bribe him (a former senator) with P400 million to persuade his rival (Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos Recto) in politics to back down.
Leandro offered him and his wife, Batangas Governor Vilma Santos, with P1 billion so she will withdraw from the gubernatorial race so he can replace her. But Recto refused both offers, which piqued Leviste.
“In his twisted mind, everything is for sale: people, honor, position,” Recto said.
He said Loren Legarda, his mother and a former colleague of Recto in the senate, knows of the said incident and had asked him not to disclose her son’s indiscretions.
“His mother knows that I didn’t like this conversation, so she apologized to me,” Recto said in Filipino. Leandro eventually got elected after he “engineered a massive vote-buying operation in Batangas,” Recto said.
After being elected, “Leandro” allegedly tried to seize thousands of hectares from the sugarcane hacienda in Nasugbu.
Recto claimed that “Leandro” accused him of having close ties with Gardiola after the newbie legislator tried to bury the issue of the P24-billion fine slapped on Leviste’s company that he used for “ghost solar projects.”
The Department of Energy imposed the P24-billion fine earlier this year when Leviste’s Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings Inc. (SPPHI) failed to deliver its grandiose commitments.
Recto also debunked claims of Leviste about his ties with Gardiola saying that the latter was his political rival and that he has no involvement in any ghost projects as claimed by Leviste.
He said he is ready to defend himself against claims hurled by a “deranged and dangerous person who will even skin his loved ones, and use their skin to drumbeat his empty achievements to feed his narcissism.”
“This is a bitter brat. Prone to tantrums, even badmouthing the woman who gave birth to him in front of many people,” Recto said.
In a strongly worded statement on Tuesday, Recto accused the neophyte lawmaker of allegedly attempting to bribe him with up to P1 billion to influence electoral contests and to grab hectares of sugar plantation lands in the province, Inquirer reported.
After offering him P400 million, Leviste again met with Recto “a week later” increasing his bribe offer to P1 billion for his wife to withdraw the gubernatorial race last May 2025 so he could replace her.
Recto said Leviste’s mother, Sen. Loren Legarda, was “crying” during the meeting.
“Again, I rejected it. It was insulting. It was infuriating. Only my respect for his mother as a former colleague stopped me from exposing him and filing charges,” he added.
According to Recto, Legarda knew he did not appreciate the conversation so she apologized to him.
Leviste ran as an independent and eventually won as congressman for the First District of Batangas during the 2025 polls, against reelectionist Eric Buhain. Santos also won as governor of Batangas.
Recto said he received reports that Leviste “engineered a massive vote-buying operation in Batangas,” unprecedented in history.
When Leviste won the election, he took his oath before Recto, who was then finance secretary, “because he had a persistent desire — to seize thousands of hectares from the sugar hacienda in Nasugbu.”
“I do not have the capacity to allow what is effectively land grabbing. I rejected it again,” Recto said.
“The reason he has been calling for a meeting is to drown his P24 billion debt, the result of his ghost solar projects — his biggest scam against the government and the Filipino people,” he said.
Leviste claimed that Recto spent billions of pesos, alongside CWS party-list Rep. Edwin Gardiola, to campaign for Santos and Luis Manzano in the local elections in 2025.