Robin Padilla
Marry my daughter, then you’ll get my blessing,” Robin Padilla told Aljur Abrenica, partner of his daughter Kylie and father to his grandson, Alas Joaquin.
Robin was reacting to Aljur’s interview with the Inquirer on his attempts to improve their relationship.
“I, too, am hopeful. I have no issue with Aljur. This is not a problem that’s too difficult to solve—what every father wants is for his daughter to settle down with a husband. That’s it!” Robin said during the launch of his latest ABS-CBN series with Jodi Sta. Maria and Richard Yap, titled “Sana Dalawa ang Puso,” which premieres on Jan. 29.
“If only my daughter would let me, I’d drag her to church and have her marry him—but I respect her,” Robin pointed out. As to the truth to the rumor that it was Kylie who refused to get married, he added: “I don’t know about that, but I give all my children the right to make decisions for themselves. To them, I am the No. 1 symbol of freedom.”
The 48-year-old actor added: “Now, if they (Kylie and Aljur) want to get my support, they should do what I ask. If they don’t want to follow, then they shouldn’t make an issue out of this with the media.”
Asked for his reaction to meeting his grandson Alas Joaquin for the first time, Robin said he was “the happiest grandfather ever. I remember when Kylie and I both attended a wedding ceremony. She placed the boy on my lap during the entire homily. I was amazed at how behaved Alas was. He is a better version of his mother,” Robin quipped.
Robin, who is also one of four jurors in the reality talent search “Pilipinas Got Talent,” recently became the subject of online discussions after he allegedly castigated a Korean auditionee, who has been living in Manila for 10 years now, for not being able to speak the local language.
“I will not take back what I said. If he really loves the country like he claims, he should have learned how to speak Tagalog by now. He is a foreigner here, we shouldn’t be made to adjust to accommodate him all the time,” the actor pointed out.
Robin said the problem with Filipinos was that they couldn’t differentiate hospitality from slavery. “When I am in another country, I adjust. I try as much as I can to speak or understand their native tongue while I’m there,” he stressed. “I didn’t reprimand the boy. I gave him fatherly advice.”
Robin, who has been spearheading the rehabilitation of war-torn Marawi City through his Tindig Marawi Foundation, said this was the reason hundreds of foreign fighters, particularly members of the terrorist group Islamic State (or Isis), were able to gain access here.
“We’re too kind and accommodating to foreigners. We became too relaxed with our security, that’s why Isis was able to get in,” he declared.
So far, the Tindig Marawi Foundation was able to set up potable water systems in 16 evacuations centers.
Robin added: “We also want to come up with livelihood projects to help them as they rebuild their lives. Marawi is called the Islamic City, and we, Muslims, will do everything we can to revive that.”
Robin added that he has a lot of people to thank, but singled out actors Sharon Cuneta and Piolo Pascual, as well as filmmaker Joyce Bernal.
Piolo and Joyce are busy with preproduction work for a movie on Marawi that will start filming in February. “Filipinos deserve to know what happened there,” said Robin.