SENATOR-elect Robin Padilla yesterday said he is “100 percent” ready to play his role as a real-life senator after attending a three-day seminar on executive mentoring and legislative governance and the Senate legislative process briefing.
In an interview after a Senate briefing, Padilla told reporters said he is excited to start working as a senator now that he already knows the basics in legislative processes, allaying public fears that he will only be a liability in the upper chamber as he knows nothing about legislation.
“(I’m) 100 (percent ready). Eh kung ako papa-upuin nila ngayon diyan, puwede na ako eh (I am 100 percent ready. In fact, if they will ask me to work right now, I am very much able),” said Padilla, who topped the senatorial race in the May 9 national elections.
Padilla said he is also prepared to engage his fellow senators in plenary discussions but said that he would speak in Filipino. “Una, hindi naman Amerikano mga kaharap ko para mag-English ako. Siguro kung Amerikano, well I’m willing to debate. Pero mga Tagalog sila eh, eh di Tagalog tayo (First, because I will not be having a face-off with Americans to speak in English. Maybe if I will debate with Americans, well, I’m willing to debate [in English]. But they [senators] are Filipinos, so let us debate in Filipino),” he said.
He said debating in Filipino does not mean that he does not speak English well, as he has been doing in his movies.
