Padilla to prosecution: ‘Bakit issue ‘yung pagpunta sa China?’

Detailed summary

'Tinanong ko pa staff ko saan ako nagpunta dahil di ko matandaan. Problema po ba 'yun kung di mo matandaan kung saan ka nagpunta sa China?' Padilla asks

Senator-judge Robin Padilla questions the witness during Day 42 of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on November 11, 2026.

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While some senator-judges were frustrated by the “evasive” answers of a defense witness to questions about trips to China, Senator-judge Robin Padilla was puzzled why it was even an issue in the first place.

Padilla expressed his confusion over the matter at the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. on Thursday, November 12. This was days after the first defense witness, Davao City Assessor Jaime Adalin, irked some senator-judges to the point of contempt warnings, after he evaded, then brushed off, the question of prosecutor Jay Tolosa about a China-sponsored trip just the past year.

Like Adalin, Padilla also did not see the relevance of the question. “Bakit po issue ‘yung pagpunta sa China (Is traveling to China an issue)?” Padilla asked the prosecution.

He shared that he had been to China several times, once with former president Rodrigo Duterte, but he could not recall the names of the places that he visited.

“Di ko rin ma-recall saan ako nagpunta kasi di pumapasok sa isip ko po na ‘yung mga lugar sa China siguro di talagang familiar sa akin. At tinanong ko pa staff ko saan ako nagpunta dahil di ko matandaan. Totoo po ‘yan. Problema po ba ‘yun kung di mo matandaan kung saan ka nagpunta sa China?” Padilla asked prosecutor Terry Ridon.

(I also couldn’t recall where I went because it didn’t enter my mind, the places in China are really not familiar to me. And I asked my staff where I went because I couldn’t remember. That’s true. Is that a problem, if you can’t remember where in China you went to?)

Ridon reiterated the prosecution’s response at the Monday hearing that the queries on Adalin’s foreign travels were made to test his credibility as a witness.

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