00:00Four senators stop receiving their salaries as they remain absent from plenary sessions of the
00:05Senate and the ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. Senate President
00:10Sherwin Gachalian says Thursday, August 27, Senator Lauren Legarda voluntarily stopped
00:15receiving her salary after she went on medical leave on August 3. Other senators who stopped
00:20receiving salaries are Rodante Marcoleta and Jingoy Estrada, who are detained over separate
00:25plunder cases, and Senator Bato de la Rosa, who faces an international criminal court arrest
00:30warrant and remains at large. Despite their detention, the Senate allowed Marcoleta and
00:34Estrada to head some Senate committees because their employees' salaries are charged to the
00:39committee's budgets. Legarda and her son, Batangas 1st District Representative Leandro Leviste,
00:44left the Philippines on August 2, days after plunder and graft complaints were announced
00:48by the Office of the Ombudsman over Leviste's solar energy projects. Gachalian says the
00:54senator's unspent salaries may eventually be declared as Senate savings and appropriated
00:58for other expenses.
