Executive Secretary Ralph Recto on Tuesday accused Batangas 1st District Representative Leandro Legarda Leviste of running a P24-billion ghost solar project fraud against the government and the Filipino people—and said the congressman’s relentless smear campaign against him exists for one reason: to drown out accountability with noise before the scandal catches up with him.
Recto said Leviste’s attacks were desperate moves of a lawmaker buried under debt from projects that were never built.
“Kaya niya ginagawa ito ay para malunod ang kanyang PHP 24 bilyon na utang na resulta ng kanyang ghost solar projects— ang kanyang pinakamalaking budol sa pamahalaan at sambayanang Pilipino,” Recto said.
Recto said the ghost solar projects represent what he called Leviste’s biggest fraud against the government and the Filipino people—and to protect himself, the congressman has since bankrolled a full-scale disinformation machine: AI-powered accounts, troll farms, a factory of lies, and a paid crowd operation, all pointed at cabinet members and the administration.
“Balitang namumudmod siya ng pera upang siraan ako dahil sa kanyang pagkahayok sa kapangyarihan at pansin,” Recto said.
“Balitang balita na may AI operations siyang pinapa-andar, factory of lies na ginagamit, at troll farms na pinapatakbo, may hakot crowd business– para sa paninira sa mga miyembro ng Kabinete at ng administrasyon. Solar farms na lang sana ang itinayo,” he added.
But Recto did not stop at the alleged solar fraud. He laid out a pattern of conduct going back to their very first meeting, when Leviste allegedly arrived with P400 million and pressured him to use the money to pay off a political rival to withdraw from a campaign.
Recto said he refused. He also said it was the opening move in what he described as three successive bribery attempts—each one rebuffed, each one more insulting than the last. The second offer came a week later and ballooned to P1 billion.
“Inalok niya kami ng PHP 1 bilyon para sa pag-urong ni Governor Vi upang siya ang humalili. Umiiyak ang nanay niya habang ginagawa niya ito,” Recto said. He said he refused again—and said only his respect for Leviste’s mother, a former colleague, kept him from filing charges on the spot. Leviste’s mother, he added, knew what had happened and personally apologized to him.
After winning his congressional seat, Recto said Leviste’s demands shifted from cash to land. He said the congressman repeatedly pushed for control over thousands of hectares of hacienda land in Nasugbu, Batangas—always through meetings his camp initiated, never the other way around.
Recto called it outright land-grabbing and refused a third time. “Wala akong kakayahang pagbigyan ang isang maituturing na agaw-lupa,” he said.
“Ito ang resulta ng tahimik na gawa,” he said, “hindi tulad ng baguhang puro ngawa na ni isang dipa ng national highway ay wala pang naipasemento.”
Recto did not mince words about the man behind the attacks. He called Leviste “a deranged and dangerous person” who would skin his loved ones to feed his narcissism—and said that in thirty years of public service, he had never encountered anyone like him.
“Sa kanyang baluktot na pag-iisip, lahat ng mga bagay ay for sale: tao, dangal, posisyon,” Recto said.
“This is a bitter brat. Prone to tantrums, even badmouthing the woman who gave birth to him in front of many people,” Recto said.
“He is the leading national inventor of lies, and in a desperate move to escape accountability, is resorting to lies to divert the issue from his misdeeds,” he said.
He also noted reports of a massive vote-buying operation Leviste allegedly engineered in Batangas, which he described as unprecedented in the province’s history.
“We should be wary of psychotic sideshows that divert us from real issues at hand,” Recto said.
Recto also dismissed Leviste’s attempt to inject malice into his relationship with CWS Partylist Rep. Edwin Gardiola, saying the Gardiola family had long been his political rivals and that their 2022 alignment was nothing more than professional courtesy between Batangueños.
Against Leviste’s record, he held up his own: paved roads across Batangas, thousands of classrooms built, every project receipted and felt on the ground.
Recto closed with a warning and a proverb: “If he will not stop telling lies about me, it is tempting for me to start telling the truth about him,” he said. He then invoked the Batangueño adage—”Wag pansinin ang asong ulol na kahol nang kahol.”
Earlier, Leviste called on Congress to investigate the alleged connection between Recto and Gardiola, claiming the attacks against him began after he started probing the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Batangas and companies allegedly tied to the Gardiolas.
“Nananawagan ako sa Kongreso na imbestigahan ang mga koneksiyon ni Gardiola kay Recto, lalo na ngayong Executive Secretary na siya,” he said.
