Thank You, Mr President
President Benigno Aquino III stood for integrity, simplicity and dynamism. Like his parents, his legacy will remain in the hearts and minds of all FIlipinos
We pay tribute to President Benigno Aquino III who, like his parents, represented dignity, simplicity, statesmanship and love of country
After his presidency in 2016, Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III withdrew from the public eye. No one was surprised; privacy has always been a cherished privilege in the Aquino family. His deteriorating health was thus unbeknownst to many outside his circle of family, friends and loyal aides and the announcement of his death on June 24 no less a shock to the nation.
In an official statement, the family shared that the only son died peacefully in his sleep due to renal disease, secondary to diabetes. At age 61 when he died, he was apparently undergoing medical treatments for a lot of major health issues concerning his heart, lungs and kidney.
A populace in grief did not hold back its emotions. Both social and traditional media were deluged with heart-warming anecdotes of encounters with Pnoy, as the former president was called, a moniker culled from his nickname Noynoy. Yellow ribbons, the symbol of protest closely associated with the Aquinos—from the father Benigno II whose assassination inflamed the protest movement against a dictatorial government, to former president Corazon C Aquino who stood as the movement’s standard bearer, to Pnoy and to the movement now considered the opposition and labelled as the Yellow Army—were hung outside homes and business establishments. The Cultural Center of the Philippines was swathed in yellow light; De La Salle University proudly wore the colours of the Philippine flag with a yellow swatch in the middle. Pnoy’s alma mater, Ateneo de Manila University, welcomed his ashes into the Church of the Gesù for public viewing and held several necrological services befitting a beloved alumnus.
Then an outpouring of Aquino’s achievements, a long list of no mean feats by a president who worked quietly and shunned fanfare. Which points to the irony of his leadership.
The country’s highest growth in four decades, fiscal stability with a reduction of debt to historic lows, revenue reforms, record low unemployment rate, dramatic improvement of the Philippines’ standing in various international rankings such as the Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom and the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report. The list goes on.
He will also always be remembered for initiating the filing of the arbitration on the West Philippine Sea against China’s claim, which received a positive response from the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. He started the major infrastructure projects that saw completion in the administration that followed his, so much so that one foreign diplomat commented that Aquino planted the trees but will not get to enjoy the shade.
And yet, Aquino’s government was heavily criticised for the inefficient handling of super typhoon Yolanda and for a botched police operation against Muslim rebels in Mamasapano. The blame went straight to the person sitting at the top. As a result, Aquino’s political party miserably failed in the next elections.
The reluctant president (The Washington Post wrote in 2010 that Pnoy “wasn’t thinking of running” after his mother’s death” … “wasn’t clamouring to be the person responsible for solving all the problems”) carried the bucket of blame. He faced charges filed at the Supreme Court related to the Mamasapano incident but was cleared of all of them on September 3, 2019, three years after his presidency.
And now he’s gone. The third in his family who served the country with a burning love for democracy as a cornerstone. Aquino’s inaugural address as 15th president of the Philippines still resonates. “My parents sought nothing less, died for nothing less, than democracy and peace. I am blessed by this legacy. I shall carry the torch forward.”