Duterte swears in Padilla

MANILA, Philippines — Senator-elect Robin Padilla took his oath of office before President Duterte at Malacañang on Thursday.

According to the senator’s office, Padilla took his oath at around 8:30 p.m. He was accompanied by members of his family, including his wife actress Mariel Rodriguez, their two daughters Gabriella and Isabella and his mother Lolita Eva Cariño.

In an Instagram post, Rodriguez thanked Duterte for administering the oath. She expressed the belief that her husband will be “an amazing and effective” senator.

Padilla is taking crash courses on the legislative process even as he maintained that he is “100 percent” ready to take on the job as a member of the Senate.

He is expected to chair the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and revision of codes as he has been advocating a shift to a federal form of government.

Many have commented on whether or not he is qualified to chair the panel, which would likely have legal luminaries and former justices as resource persons, but his fellow senators defended him by saying that a non-lawyer can head the committee.

The briefing for neophyte senators was dubbed “Executive Mentoring on Legislative Governance: Setting the tone for the first 100 days in the 19th Congress.” It was led by Senate Deputy Secretary Edwin Bellen, who gave a talk on plenary procedures and processes at the committee level.

Padilla earlier said he found all the lessons easy so far as he wanted to do what was being taught him.

“I was just adjusting a bit. I was summa cum laude in cutting classes before. But now it’s different, I’m the one looking for something to do,” he joked in Filipino.