Expect to see less of Batangas 1st district Rep. Leandro Legarda Leviste in the House of Representatives, at least for the time being.

Leviste confirmed in Viber message exchanges with reporters on Friday night, Jan. 30 that he sought a travel authority from the House leadership, and that he was basically asked by the Marcos administration to temporarily leave the country.

"I asked for the travel authority upon the request of representatives of the administration who asked that I go abroad and stop releasing evidence linking government officials to anomalous DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) projects," he said.

Up to this point, Leviste has mostly been known for his exposés on hundreds of pages of DPWH budget documents, in particular the "Cabral files" that are allegedly linked to the flood control projects corruption scandal. 

However, Leviste was mum on probably the most intriguing detail of his statement: who were the officials who asked him to leave?

"Several high-level representatives of the administration have requested this—to my mom (Senator Loren Legarda), so that I do not name them," the billionaire businessman-turned-solon said.

Asked to confirm or deny the leaked information that his travel authority request covered 20 countries from Feb. 8 to July 26, Leviste said: "Yes, but please note this does not mean that I will be abroad for that whole time."

"I will be present at any opportunity that Congress gives me to speak on any issue, as long as I am asked or allowed," he stressed

In this regard, Leviste refused to be framed as someone who bowed down to the administration's pressure.

When pressed on who these high-level emissaries were, Leviste simply responded with: "You can take the response I think as it is, that it is from the administration."

The neophyte House member then gave a disclaimer: "I would like to note that I did not volunteer any of the above information and I am only responding to questions that were asked to me."

Leviste said that he would "also like to allow the other party to release further information they have than I have responded to here".

Asked what he would be doing in the countries he would be travelling to, the 32-year-old said: "I plan to visit the Filipino community in countries with significant Filipino communities (not in any one particular country, as you can see there’s several listed countries)."

Reports said that the Netherlands and Portugal were among the countries in Leviste's travel authority request. The House has yet to release a copy of the document to reporters.