Actor and senatorial aspirant Robin Padilla on Tuesday thanked President Rodrigo Duterte for including him in the administration senatorial slate and credited the chief executive for his “surprising” performance in a recently conducted survey that showed the actor in the top 12 among candidates running for senator in the May 2022 polls.
The survey, conducted by SWS sometime in October after the filing of candidacies, showed that 29% of those polled would vote for Padilla if the elections were held that day. Padilla was the 10th highest among senatorial candidates.
Padilla attributed his showing in the survey to the support and the popularity of the President, who could finish his term as the most popular president in our country’s history.
“Nagpapasalamat ako kay Pangulong Duterte at sa ating mga kababayan para sa kanilang tiwala at suporta. Gagawin ko ang lahat para ipakitang deserving ako maging kinatawan ng ating mga kababayan sa Senado,” said PDP-Laban senatorial candidate.
Padilla attributed his showing in the survey to the support and the popularity of the President, who could finish his term as the most popular president in our country’s history.
“Nakikita naman sa survey na aprub na aprub ang mga kababayan natin sa trabaho ni Presidente. Kaya bagamat nagulat ako sa ranking ko sa survey, di ako nagugulat na karamihan sa amin sa Magic 12 ay kilalang mga supporter ni Tatay Digong,” explained Padilla.
The actor said that like the President, he would continue to fight for the rights of Filipinos, especially overseas Filipino workers who are abused by their employers.
Duterte in February 2018 prohibited workers from being deployed to Kuwait after domestic helper Joanna Demafelis’s corpse was discovered in a freezer in her employer’s home. The deployment ban was only lifted in May that year after the government signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Kuwait that would provide additional protection for OFWs in the Gulf state.
The actor said that like the President, he would continue to fight for the rights of Filipinos, especially overseas Filipino workers who are abused by their employers.
“Dahil dito, nabigyan ng dagdag na proteksyon ang ating mga kababayan sa ibang bansa. Kaya idol ko si Presidente––yan ang tunay na resbak. Yan din maaasahan ng ating mga kababayan natin sa akin––ako magiging resbak nila sa Senado!”
According to the article “Filipino Slang: Decoding Street Words from the ’70s through the ’90s” in the esquiremag.ph website, “resbak” is Filipino slang that means “retaliate or to avenge something or someone.”
The article further states, “in the case of resbak, what is being taken back through retaliation is the dignity of a person who was maligned, offended, insulted, or physically harmed.”
