Robin Padilla had this statement about NPA
Senator Robin Padilla has pushed for localized peace talks with the New People’s Army (NPA) instead of conducting costly but ineffective peace talks at the national level.
According to Padilla, national peace talks only result in pointless expenses and trips abroad without concrete results. He pointed out that talks with NPA members have not stopped, but this is through localized peace engagement.
Based on the report from Abante News, the action star-turned-politician added that local talks are more effective because the communities themselves know how to resolve conflicts in their areas.
Sen. Robin Padilla emphasized that locals should be directly consulted, and there is no need to go through a fancy process.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. previously insisted that peace talks with communist rebels were no longer necessary after the bloody military offensive in Negros Occidental.
“The Filipinos are at peace. They are the ones disturbing the peace. So why should we talk to them? They’re committing crimes,” the Defense Secretary said previously.
Teodoro also stressed that what happened was plain terrorism. For him, to call for peace talks would just elevate the morality of the NPA’s cause to something legitimate, and he could not accept this.
Meanwhile, aside from Sen. Robin Padilla’s recent statement about the NPA, his statement about his fellow lawmaker, Sen. Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa, also caught the attention of the online community.
It was because Padilla showed support for his fellow senator, who has been in hiding since November 2025, following reports that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has a warrant of arrest against him, for his alleged involvement in the supposed extra-judicial killings during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs program.
Sen. Robin Padilla expressed that he is ready to die for his fellow senator if the latter were arrested in the Senate.