Senator Robin Padilla has found an ally in the House of Representatives as far as his proposed Equal Use of Languages Act is concerned.
This ally is none other than fellow neophyte lawmaker P3PWD Party-list Rep. Rowena Guanzon. Guanzon, a former Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner, recently took to her favorite social media platform, Twitter, to show support for Padilla's call.
"I agree with Sen. Robinhood, all laws and court orders must have Filipino translation," she tweeted last Monday, July 18.
Guanzon's tweet has earned nearly 8,000 likes as of this posting.
Earlier, Padilla, the top vote-getter in the May 2022 Senate race, frowned over the fact that the country's laws and court verdicts are written in English and not in Filipino.
According to the movie actor-turned-solon, this causes difficulties among some Filipinos when it comes to understanding these documents.
"Parang hindi patas para dun sa mga kababayan natin na ‘di ko naman sinasabing hindi nakakaintindi ng English ano, kundi masyado kasing ‘yung may kinalaman sa batas, ‘yung mga English niyan masyadong hindi mo talaga din maitindihan. Kailangan na talagang magkaroon ng parehas na pagtrato sa salitang Pilipino at English (It seems to be unfair for our countrymen, who I am not saying can't understand English but, when it comes to laws, it's really hard to understand the English words there. There must really be equal treatment of the Filipino and English languages)," he was quoted as saying.
Padilla full name is Robinhood Ferdinand Cariño Padilla.