Manila, May 29 -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday expressed concern over recent developments in the Senate, saying debates have increasingly become personal rather than issue-based.

Marcos, a former senator, said he has observed a shift in Senate discourse away from professional deliberation.

"Very [concerning]. I watched with horror that the Senate has become this," he said in a media interview in Tokyo, Japan, recalling his earlier discussion with Executive Secretary Ralph Recto, also a former senator.

"Of course, the only basis for comparison that I have is the time that I was in the Senate. And I never imagined that the Senate would descend into this kind of what's happening right now," he added.

He lamented that the ...