Former Philippine president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, the reserved scion of one of Asia’s most famous political families, died yesterday from kidney failure. He was 61.
Aquino, who was in office from 2010 to 2016, was the only son of former Philippine president Corazon Aquino and her assassinated husband, former Philippine senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, both revered for leading the struggle to restore democracy in the nation.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman announced “Ninoy” Aquino’s death hours after local media reported that the former leader had been rushed to a Manila hospital.
Photo: AP
“We commiserate and condole with the family and loved ones of former president Benigno Simeon ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said. “We are grateful to the former president for his contributions.”
The unmarried politician “died peacefully in his sleep,” said Pinky Aquino-Abellada, one of Aquino’s four sisters.
“No words can express how broken our hearts are and how long it will take for us to accept the reality that he is gone,” said Aquino-Abellada, reading from a statement outside the mortuary.
“Noy, mission accomplished,” she added.
Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin wrote on Twitter that “Ninoy” Aquino was “brave under armed attack, wounded in crossfire, indifferent to power and its trappings, and ruled our country with a puzzling coldness, but only because he hid his feelings so well it was thought he had none.”
“Ninoy” Aquino, who was succeeded by populist strongman Duterte, waged an anti-corruption campaign during a term that ushered in key economic reforms.
“Ninoy” Aquino was born on Feb. 8, 1960, to one of the country’s wealthiest land-owning political families.
A latecomer to the presidential race in 2010, he declared his candidacy only after his mother’s death from cancer the previous year had plunged the country into mourning and demonstrated the power of the family name.
He made fighting corruption his mantra, capitalizing on his family’s clean reputation, and vowed to reduce the poverty afflicting a third of the population.
His administration delivered average annual economic growth of about 6 percent, the highest since the 1970s, handing the country investment-grade status — but poverty remained endemic.
Unlike Duterte, “Ninoy” Aquino put the Philippines’ long-running dispute with China over competing claims to the South China Sea at the top of his foreign policy agenda.
He launched a landmark case with a UN-backed tribunal to challenge Beijing’s claims to most of the sea, which ruled in favor of the Philippines — even though Beijing rejected the decision.
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