Casimiro "Roy" Aquino Padilla Jr.

Roy Padilla Jr. died on 11 November 2026 at the age of 77. His death was confirmed in a statement by his brother, Camarines Norte Governor Ricarte "Dong" Padilla, who called it a great loss not only to the family but to the whole province and thanked everyone who had sent condolences and prayers. Vice Governor Joseph Villaverde Ascutia also offered condolences and recognised his role in important periods of the province's governance. The cause and place of death were not made public in initial reports by ABS-CBN, Bombo Radyo and Abante. Funeral arrangements had not been announced.

Casimiro "Roy" Aquino Padilla Jr. was born in Manila on 13 December 1948. His father, Casimero "Roy" Bustamante Padilla Sr. (1926 to 1988), had acted and directed films under the name Carlos Roy Padilla before a long political career as mayor of Jose Panganiban, vice governor, Batasang Pambansa member and governor of Camarines Norte. His mother was Loreta Aquino. His grandfather, Jose Padilla Sr., had been governor of Bulacan.

Roy Sr. had many children with several partners. Roy Jr.'s half-siblings include the actor and senator Robin Padilla, the actors Rommel Padilla and BB Gandanghari, Camarines Norte governor Ricarte "Dong" Padilla and Jose Panganiban vice mayor Casimero "Kuatro" Padilla.

Padilla's political career began on 17 January 1988, when his father was assassinated by a gunman while campaigning for re-election as governor in Labo, a day before the 1988 local elections. Roy Jr. ran in his father's place, succeeded him as governor and began his own elected term on 1 February 1988. He won three consecutive terms and served as governor until 30 June 1998.

From 1998 to 2001 he was the representative of Camarines Norte's lone congressional district in the 11th Congress. He filed bills seeking to legalise divorce and abortion, which proved controversial and did not become law. In the province he championed the use of Tagalog in official provincial documents and proposed renaming Camarines Norte as "Hilagang Kamarines". He later served as vice governor of the province.

Padilla belonged to one of the best known political and entertainment families in the Philippines. Within weeks of his father's assassination in January 1988, the family also lost his younger half-brother Ronaldo Padilla, mayor-elect of Jose Panganiban, in a car crash. Details of his own marriage and children were not widely reported in coverage of his death.

Padilla led Camarines Norte through the decade after his father's killing, one of the most violent episodes in the province's political history, and helped establish the Padilla family as a lasting force in Bicol politics: his brother Ricarte later became governor. Nationally, his divorce and abortion bills of the late 1990s were among the earliest attempts in Congress to legalise either.