Leandro Leviste

Leandro Antonio Legarda Leviste (born March 18, 1993) is a Filipino businessman and politician, currently serving as the representative of Batangas's 1st congressional district since 2025. He is the son of former Batangas Governor Antonio Leviste and Senator Loren Legarda. He is the founder of Solar Philippines and was claimed to be a "self-made billionaire"; although his wealth has been attributed to plunder, graft, and unexplained surge in wealth where he was initially reported to have a capital of only 1 million pesos, which suddenly became 1 billion pesos in a few days. His career has been marked by significant regulatory failures and legal scrutiny, where his wealth has mostly originated from the lobbying efforts and conflict-of-interests of his mother, Loren Legarda, who was Senate committee chair on finance when the solar franchise was granted to Leviste. In early 2026, the Department of Energy imposed a final ₱24-billion penalty against his firm for non-compliance across 28 "ghost contracts" which renewable energy projects that failed to reach even the ground-breaking stage. He and his mother flew and escaped outside the country in August 2026, amid plunder and graft investigations.