Senator Robin Padilla’s declaration that he is a communist has drawn a sharp public response from actress Angel Locsin, who used the moment to revisit her own experience of being branded a subversive years earlier.
The senator made the admission on Tuesday, July 14, the fifth day of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, while cross-examining National Bureau of Investigation regional director Jeremy Lotoc. Padilla had steered his questioning toward the history of Russia’s Romanov dynasty, arguing that the fall of the imperial family at the hands of communists offered a lens for reading the “Operation Romanov” reference tied to Duterte’s November 2024 press conference. It was during that exchange that he told Lotoc plainly he was a communist, framing the disclosure as relevant to how the term should be understood.
Locsin, who spent years pushing back against accusations that she and her family were linked to the New People’s Army, said she welcomed the candor even as she pressed the senator on his past.
“Sa statement mo na to, kahit papaano, natuwa akong makita ulit ‘yung dating Robin Padilla na nakilala ko. At least, honest ka ngayon, Kuya,” she wrote.
Her larger grievance was where Padilla stood when she was under attack. She recalled being red-tagged despite the falsity of the label and accused him of standing among those who spread it, or looking away while they did.
“Ang tanong ko lang, nasaan ka nung panahong nire-red-tag ako kahit alam mong hindi totoo? Actually, kasama mo pa nga at kachikahan ‘yung mga nangre-red-tag. Naghugas-kamay at pumikit sa katotohanan,” she said.
The actress also questioned the senator’s continued defense of detained preacher Apollo Quiboloy, whom he has previously described as both a hero against the communist insurgency and a victim of it. Padilla has repeatedly denied that his stance amounts to defending the pastor, saying he is instead upholding due process. Locsin found that position difficult to square with his politics.
“Pero bakit parang mas ipinaglalaban mo pa si Quiboloy? Naniniwala ka ba talaga na siya ang ‘appointed son of God’?” she added.
She closed with a note on loyalty and constituency, telling Padilla, “Tama na, Kuya. Gising na. Hindi pa huli ang lahat.”
Padilla, who was raised to the Senate at the top of the 2022 senatorial vote and carries the Muslim name Abdul Aziz, has drawn criticism before for his defense of Quiboloy, having joined colleagues in an unsuccessful attempt to block a Senate contempt order against the church leader.
