Padilla Sorry For ‘Weak’ Youth Remark

Sen. Robinhood Padilla apologized on Friday, Feb. 13, to people offended by his controversial remarks calling today’s youth “weak” amid rising suicide cases.

Padilla maintained that strict measures, including a total ban on social media for children aged 16 and below, are necessary to address the youth mental health crisis.

Facing backlash online and from mental health advocates, Padilla said the controversy served a purpose: to force a national conversation on the impact of the digital age on children.

Addressing television host Kim Atienza, who had reminded Padilla that “depression is not a simple matter of generational divide,” the senator said, “Paumanhin po.”

Atienza, who lost his daughter Emman in 2025, reminded Padilla that depression is not a simple matter of generational divide as he urged the senator to show more compassion.

Padilla faced a wave of criticism from netizens and mental health advocates after he called the younger generation “weak” and “iyakin” or crybabies, unlike him.

Padilla made the statement during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 10, on bills tackling children’s social media use.

The 56-year-old actor-turned-politician said his generation was more street smart, compared to the “digital native” Gen-Zs and millennials.

But netizens were quick to point out the irony of a man who called others “weak” for crying when he himself has cried on national TV.

Advocates and experts including the Psychological Association of the Philippines stressed: “The Filipino youth is not weak.”

They reminded Padilla that depression should not be trivialized and adult depression also exists.