[Rappler’s Best] A troll in the Senate

Senator-judge Robin Padilla makes a manifestation during Day 6 of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on July 15, 2026. Senate Social Media Unit It’s already quite a strain to watch and hear the Cayetano tag team three trial days a week, but to toss Robin Padilla into the duo’s hyperventilating cauldron (pun intended!) is too much for taxpayers to bear Why we had to suffer Senator Robin Padilla in the first two weeks of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte is a question that should be directed to — and addressed by — the presiding officer, who has allowed the unfiltered antics of this has-been actor. It’s already quite a strain to watch and hear the Cayetano tag team three trial days a week, but to toss Robin Padilla into the duo’s hyperventilating cauldron (pun intended!), I believe, is too much for taxpayers to bear. It’s akin to having a troll in court, lurking but ready to rile up a base with a smirk and a punchline that thrills the internet but mocks our brain. In his attempt to show knowledge of Russian history, and perhaps intimidate the prosecution’s unflappable witness, NBI cybercrime expert Jeremy Lotoc, Padilla talked about the Romanovs, about how they were brought down by communists, about how Rodrigo Duterte supposedly became the first anti-communist president, and about the fact that Padilla himself is a communist. “Komunista po ako, ha. Gusto ko lamang pong alamin ninyo,” he told a confused Lotoc. Did you get the drift? No one did, that I’m sure of. Chito de la Vega wrote in his latest Tambay piece titled, “Ang artificial intelligence ni Robin Padilla,” that the senator’s questions “ay hitik sa angas, pero kapos sa kaalaman.” Brimming with swagger, but lacking in knowledge. Perhaps clarity in the trial is not Padilla’s desired outcome, wrote Joselito de los Reyes in this Thought Leaders piece. He need not act or work like a senator. “Kailangan lang niyang laging maging in character sa kaniyang mga pelikula: sanggano, batang-kanto, inaapi. Kunwaring para sa nakararami.” He simply needs to stay in character in his movies: the street toughie, the downtrodden underdog — ostensibly for the masses. Surely impeachment court presiding officer Senator Chiz Escudero knows when a judge is not only out of order but out of his depth, and at the expense of the taxpaying public? Already, as Joey Salgado wrote in this piece, the trial threatens to bore us to death. It bears repeating that Padilla helped the now fugitive Senator Bato dela Rosa escape from the Senate. For this, he’s the subject of a complaint with the Ombudsman for obstruction of justice and has been asked to explain. When the Senate held a special session to tackle the final pending bills before lawmakers went on recess, guess what Padilla did? He skipped the session to attend a special screening of his action film Bad Boys 3. The Senate, it must be said, costs us at least P87 million yearly in just salaries alone, excluding allowances, committee budgets, consultants, and other discretionary spending, according to Val Villanueva in this piece. Each senator gets paid more than P300,000 a month, based on the government’s salary schedule effective January 1, 2026 issued by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). We’re a world already drowning in memes and counterfeit, that the Senate should be the last source of troll-like language and behavior. Because look at our zero tolerance towards trash emanating from China, for instance: The state-run China Daily, seen as a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, released an AI-generated video ridiculing the Philippine position by depicting Filipinos as… monkeys. Filipino officials pushed back with fury, with lawmakers calling it an act of an “entitled bully.” Take the video down, declared the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs. In this report, Bea Cupin puts this recent Chinese propaganda in perspective. Propagandists and the likes of Robin Padilla thrive in today’s attention economy, which rewards one-liners, screams, and lies wrapped in vitriol. “Unlike lies — which you can pull out of thin air — ‘the best obtainable version of the truth’ takes time, talent, resources, and courage,” writes Gemma Mendoza in this newsletter. I encourage you to read it, as it explains why you, dear reader, need to help independent newsrooms that care to speak truth to elected officials like Robin Padilla. Here are some of Rappler’s bests that you shouldn’t miss: Don Kevin Hapal tells us how PR has moved to news media, and what enabled the collapse of that wall. Paterno Esmaquel II looks into the challenge now facing priests: Godbots. Lala Rimando zeroes in on the offer of an Indonesia billionaire to buy an energy firm linked to the Lopezes — and how this might impact the family feud. Lance Spencer Yu talks about a peace plan for the warring Lopez cousins crafted by the Securities and Exchange Commission chief no less. Lance Spencer Yu explains the fight over VP Duterte’s bank and tax records, which the impeachment court will decide on today. Jairo Bolledo tackles the reasons why the Duterte camp opposes the move to subpoena them. Dwight de Leon and Isabel Victorino profile the feisty Lorna Kapunan, private prosecutor in the Duterte impeachment trial. – Rappler.com Rappler’s Best is a weekly Rappler+ exclusive newsletter of our top picks delivered straight to your inbox every Monday. Visit rappler.com/newsletters to subscribe. The views expressed by the writer are his/her own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Rappler. How does this make you feel? Loading