Actor Robin Padilla once called Senator Antonio Trillanes IV an “enemy” for criticizing President Rodrigo Duterte, but no one thought he would suddenly show up at the Senate building yesterday.
A loyal and vocal supporter of Duterte, Padilla said he was at the Senate to witness Trillanes’ impending arrest.
He also told reporters that he would arrest Trillanes himself.
On Tuesday, the government announced the revocation of the amnesty given to Trillanes by former President Benigno Aquino III in 2010, for allegedly failing to file the required application form. Trillanes has been holed up at the Senate building since it happened.
Padilla told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he’s aware that an arrest warrant hasn’t been issued.
He said in Filipino: “All of us here knows that there is no warrant. If there is a warrant we would be inside because there’s a citizen’s arrest right? It’s in the law, if you’re a citizen of the Philippines you have to catch them.”
When asked if he was there to conduct a citizen’s arrest, he said: “That’s why I’m here.”
It’s likely that Padilla, who started his career in action films, may not end up not fulfilling his fantasy.
According to Rappler, members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) are already stationed outside the Senate building to ensure Trillanes would be arrested once the right time comes.
No one can doubt that the combined forces of the AFP and the PNP are more than capable to arrest the senator, so Padilla may just end up watching in the sidelines once a warrant has been issued.
Padilla’s surprise appearance at the Senate grounds shows that he seems strangely invested in Trillanes’ case.
In a Facebook Live video posted on Monday for example, Padilla shows the Senate building on camera, while shouting in Filipino, presumably to Trillanes: “Get out of there, dude! Don’t hide behind the skirts of the Senate!”
This teenager-like behavior prompted Trillanes to tell him to “grow up.”
Trillanes told the Inquirer yesterday in Filipino: “This Robin Padilla, how old is he? How come he didn’t mature? He’s like he’s in high school.”
It didn’t end there.
Padilla shot back in another video posted on his Facebook account yesterday: “There’s only one person who acts like a kid here. You [Trillanes]. I went to the Senate to see them serve the law. Because according to the law, no one is above the law. That’s the reason why I went to the Senate, to practice my right.”
Why is Padilla so interested in this issue? He said that Trillanes was his classmate in Siena Colleges, but admits that he doesn’t remember seeing him in school too often.
As one of Duterte’s most loyal supporters, Padilla’s name has been floated as a possible administration candidate for senator in the elections next year.
Is this his way of showing how much he cares for the country?
Trillanes, however, has had enough of Padilla. The senator told ABS-CBN yesterday: “He’s had too much attention for the day.”
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