ASEANEWS EDITORIAL-NEWS2VIEWS: NEWS: Nadia Montenegro “I vehemently deny that I am smoking marijuana” | VIEWS: Nadia, are you talking to the Marines?
Actress resigns as Padilla’s political affairs officer
MANILA, Philippines — Actress Nadia Montenegro has resigned from her post at the Senate following allegations of her marijuana use inside the chamber, a charge she denied.
In a letter addressed to the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA), Montenegro said she was not the unnamed staffer identified in media reports as having been caught using marijuana in the Senate restroom, insisting that the accounts did not match the official incident report.
“I vehemently deny that I am the staffer being alluded to in the news reports. I was never confronted by OSAA personnel for allegedly smoking marijuana, nor was there ever an incident of marijuana use in my presence,” she wrote.
She admitted that she had been carrying and using a vape, which she showed to Senate personnel, but stressed it was grape-flavored with no cannabis.
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Montenegro also maintained that she had used the restroom for persons with disabilities, not the women’s restroom where a marijuana odor was supposedly detected.
She questioned why the incident, which took place in July, was reported to the Senate leadership only in mid-August, and raised doubts about the credibility of a witness cited in reports.
“How can a male staff member of a senator say I was the only one inside the ladies’ comfort room when he could not have been inside himself?” Montenegro asked, urging the Senate to review CCTV footage to verify her account.
She also assailed the premature release of the incident report to the media, saying it subjected her to “trial by publicity” and caused grave humiliation to her and her family.
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Despite her denial, Montenegro said she was resigning “effective immediately” out of respect for the Senate and to shield her family from further harm.
“This is not an admission of guilt,” she wrote. “I am stepping down to protect my loved ones, my mental health and to avoid being a distraction to my principal.”
Montenegro was a staff member of Sen. Robinhood Padilla, one of the proponents of medical marijuana legalization in the Senate. She held the position of Political Affairs Officer 6.
The incident has triggered calls among senators for mandatory drug tests to reinforce trust in the Senate.
Yesterday, Senate Deputy Minority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and his entire staff underwent drug tests, urging colleagues to do the same.
Sen. Raffy Tulfo also announced that he and his staff would undergo random drug testing, saying the measure would include all employees down to his janitors.
He stressed that while there are no laws legalizing medical cannabis, its use remains illegal and must be punished.
“As long as there’s no law, it’s treated as illegal and therefore, if it’s illegal… if I have staff who are using it, they should be punished,” he told reporters in Filipino.
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Unlike Zubiri who prefers suspension and rehabilitation, Tulfo said he would outright dismiss anyone who would test positive.
He, however, clarified that if an employee who tested positive later undergoes rehabilitation and turns up negative in a follow-up test, he would be open to rehiring them.
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