Robin Padilla, the senator, is pro-China

I was continuing to clear my home office of old files when I came upon Dr. Jose Rizal’s Mi Ultimo Adios. I recall that in the early years of personal computers and printers, I had it printed together with a translation written by Charles Derbyshire, an American educator. The third stanza of our hero’s last farewell hit my emotions hardest. These lines are Yo muero cuando veo que el cielo se colora?Y al fin anuncia el día trás lóbrego capuz;?Si grana necesitas para teñir tu aurora,?Vierte la sangre mía, derrámala en buen hora?Y dórela un reflejo de su naciente luz.

Derbyshire’s translation of this particular stanza reads: I die just when I see the dawn break, / Through the gloom of night, to herald the day; / And if color is lacking my blood thou shalt take, / Pour'd out at need for thy dear sake, / To dye with its crimson the waking ray."

It is not impossible to imagine that Senator Robin Padilla, known as Muslim Abdul Aziz, might have read Dr. Rizal’s poem Mi Ultimo Adios while he was incarcerated at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa, serving time for illegal possession of firearms, starting in 1994. But it is also not impossible that he, like many of us (not excluding me), did not understand the Spanish text nor Derbyshire’s English translation. Historically speaking, Rizal and Padilla were imprisoned for entirely different reasons - Rizal for his love of country and Padilla for something else. By the way, as we all know, Rizal’s complete name is in six words Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado Alonzo y Realonda while Padilla’s name is also in six words Robinhood Ferdinand Cariño Padilla Abdul Aziz.

I have to write about Padilla because he used his high national office to admit that he is, in his own graphic words, PRO-CHINA. It was a sweeping declaration. No qualification. He was unashamed to speak in the midst of Chinese insults heaped against Philippine officialdom. Padilla stood in the hallowed halls of the Philippine Senate to express markedly opposite positions. Senator Padilla did not remember that Dr Rizal would “muero cuando veo que el cielo se colora” and shed his blood to color the dawn of our national freedom. Instead, Padilla, speaking completely in Tagalog, dishonored Commodore Jay Tristan Tarriela, of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) if only to defend the honor of the Chinese president Xi Jin Ping.

Padilla wants us to think that he is ignorant of the decision of the Permanent International Arbitration Tribunal ruling that the West Philippine Sea is within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Well, maybe he actually is! I say so because sometime in June 2019, a Chinese vessel, identified as Yuemaobinyu 42212, rammed the Philippine fishing boat F/B Gem-Ver 1 within the Philippine EEZ. Maybe Padilla can remember that incident. He was not a senator yet then, and so we did not hear any word from him. But in the latest incident taking place only in December 2025, a Chinese Coast Guard used high-pressure water cannons against roughly 20 Filipino fishing boats near Sabina Shoal. Did Senator Padilla express in the Senate Hall any indignation against the violence committed within the Philippine EEZ by this international bully headed by Xi Jin Ping?

Those two are lurid examples committed by Chinese bully in the EEZ which must be taken in the context of Padilla’s being PRO CHINA. EEZ is a battlefield. Rizal might not have seen it when he said “en campos de batalia” but it is a battleground where our sovereignty is assaulted. When Rizal sighed “Ensueño de mi vida, xx Morir por darte vida”, (my life’s burning passion xx to die that  you may live) Padilla could also have used the sacred hall of the Philippine Senate to defend our territorial sovereignty rather than honor of the Chinese leader as PRO-CHINA.