EDITORIAL - Senate ‘joint session’

In February last year, the wife of Sen. Robinhood Padilla turned his Senate office into a backdrop for endorsing glutathione drip for skin whitening.

Mariel Padilla seemed confused by the flak that the incident drew, but later issued a public apology and clarified that what was dripped was not glutathione but Vitamin C. This came amid warnings from the Department of Health about the dangers of using glutathione, whether for skin whitening or other supposed health benefits.

This time, a member of Senator Padilla’s staff has again drawn controversy over suspicions that she might have been smoking marijuana in the women’s restroom of the Senate.

A probe by the Senate is still ongoing, but the staff has been identified as Nadia Montenegro, an entertainer like Robinhood Padilla who has crossed over into government service.

Montenegro denied smoking marijuana, but reportedly said she had a vape cartridge in her bag. She was ordered to go on leave “immediately” as Padilla’s political officer, according to the senator’s chief of staff, Rudolf Philip Jurado.

He denied that Montenegro had resigned, and said she is ready to answer the points raised in an incident report prepared by the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms. A member of Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s staff had reportedly alerted a Senate security officer about the odor of what seemed like marijuana emanating from the women’s restroom. The only person who went out of the restroom shortly after that was Montenegro, according to the OSSA report.

There are vapes containing cannabis, which has led to their confiscation in countries where marijuana is banned. Smoking vapes in all government buildings and other public places is prohibited under Republic Act 11900, the Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products Regulation Act of 2022, and its implementing rules.

Because of the incident, the OSSA is reportedly considering random drug testing of Senate employees.

Senators used to be looked up to as the nation’s best and brightest. The bar for exemplary behavior in the chamber, unfortunately, has progressively fallen in the past years.

Today the chamber is in the thick of controversy over the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. The last thing that its members would want is a scandal over what has been dubbed as a “joint session,” allegedly starring the staff of a senator who is a staunch supporter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, currently detained in The Hague over his brutal crackdown on drug suspects.