Senator-judge Robin Padilla declared himself a communist on the trial floor Tuesday, July 14, as he questioned a National Bureau of Investigation official during the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
“Komunista po ako ha,” Padilla told NBI Regional Director Jeremy Lotoc, in a remark that quickly circulated online.
The statement came as the senator steered his questioning toward the history of the Romanovs, the last ruling family of imperial Russia, whom he invoked to interpret references made during a controversial November 2024 press conference. Padilla asked Lotoc whether he knew who was responsible for executing Tsar Nicholas II and his family, drawing a parallel between the Romanovs and the Duterte clan.
Padilla argued that Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte’s mention of the Romanovs should be read as a reference to threats facing leaders who fight communist insurgents. He noted that the Vice President succeeded her father as chairperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, or NTF-ELCAC.
“Hindi ba po dapat isipin natin yung Romanov ay tungkol sa threat na pumapasok sa mga pamilya na mga namumuno dito sa ating bayan na lumalaban sa komunista?” Padilla asked.
Lotoc declined to adopt the senator’s interpretation, saying the matter of whether an “Operation Romanov” existed fell under the NBI’s intelligence service. He also told the panel he had no personal knowledge of any threat against the Vice President, nor of any plot to hire an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Padilla has previously described his politics as rooted in socialist ideals drawn from his upbringing, citing his father’s work as a labor leader, and met with the late Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison in 2017.
