Actress Resigns as Padilla's Political Affairs Officer

Actress Nadia Montenegro has resigned from her post at the Senate following allegations of her marijuana use inside the chamber, a charge she denied.

- By Neil Jayson Servallos

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.

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.