EDITORIAL — Improve our senatorial pool

As the impeachment case of Vice President Sara Carpio proceeds, another person is getting a lot of attention; Senator Robinhood Padilla.

And not for the right reasons. So far he has managed to make a fool of himself with his comments.

“Sana hindi one-sided ang ating prosecution,” he said during the trial.

He had to be reminded that that the purpose of the prosecution panel is to defeat the defense and get a conviction.

“Pwede po bang iwasan natin na may ganito tayong witness? Ang nasasakdal po kasi dito ay binoto ng 32 milyon tao,” he said.

One thing isn’t necessarily related to the other, 32 million votes doesn’t necessarily mean someone is telling the truth on a particular issue.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time he has shown not just that he doesn’t understand how the law or logic works. We suppose we should be thankful he is no longer chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes.

And what’s concerning is that, as per surveys, Senator Padilla is leading as the most preferred candidate for the Senate in the 2028 elections, according to the latest pre-election survey by OCTA Research.

He was followed by Senator Raffy Tulfo with 47.4%, Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano with 45.4%, former senator Grace Poe with 44.5%, Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto with 42%, and Sen. Loren Legarda with 39%.

What does this say of our electorate?

Again, this shows that not only should we choose our senators better, we must set the bar higher for who should become senator. Age, residency, and supposed literacy alone are no longer enough.

As an additional requirement, how about we throw in that they have never been convicted for a criminal act involving physical injury? Also, how about we require them to be fluent in both Filipino and English, not to be elitist but so they can read and understand legal documents?

As mentioned in a previous editorial, the requirements to apply as a security guard, cashier, IT manager, among other jobs are stricter than the requirements to run as senator.

Let's improve who makes it into our senatorial pool.

"Age, residency, and supposed literacy alone are no longer enough."