Malacañang on Monday said that action star Robin Padilla should focus on the pork barrel scam instead of using it to attack Senate President Franklin Drilon.

“[A]ng dapat pagtuunan ng pansin ni Robin Padilla—and with all due respect to Robin Padilla—is, like what we’ve been saying, bilang isang mamamayan, ang tanungin natin sa bawat mambabatas, sa bawat government official: paano niyo ginamit ang kaban ng bayan? Ikaw ba ay nagnakaw?” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said at a press briefing on Monday.

The action star posted on his Instagram account a picture of Drilon with a pig’s body, calling for his resignation for receiving P100 million in additional funds, allegedly in connection with voting to convict Chief Justice Renato Corona in May last year.

Padilla also said that Drilon, then Justice Secretary, was behind his incarceration for illegal possession of firearms in 1994. The actor was later pardoned by President Ramos in 1998 after a new law was passed minimizing the penalty of the crime.

“Is that a reason for going against Senator Drilon? I think Robin Padilla should refocus and direct himself to the issue [of] who stole the people’s money,” Lacierda said.

Padilla also reportedly defended his friends, former action stars and current Senators Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada, who have both been charged with plunder ^[2] in connection with the pork barrel scam.

Notably, the law that cut short Padilla’s jail term was authored by then-Senator Ramon Revilla Sr., Bong’s father.

Lacierda reiterated that Padilla should focus on the issue, “huwag po dahil kaibigan.”

“Ang magandang gawin niya, tanungin niya si Senator Drilon: Nagamit niyo ba nang maayos ang pondo? Kung masasagot ni Senator Drilon na maayos ang paggamit [niya] ng pondo, ma-a-identify niya ‘yung mga projects, e ‘di sana magkaayos sila. At balikan ang focus: sino ang nagnakaw ng pera ng bayan,” Lacierda said.

Drilon, meanwhile, brushed aside calls for his resignation, singling out Padilla as “[getting] it all wrong.” ^[3]

“That I admitted receiving P100 million in DAP funds was not like I admitted committing a crime. On the contrary, I was only doing my role in helping prime the economy that was needed at that time,” Drilon said in a press statement. — BM, GMA News