Former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III passed away at 6.30 am today (June 24), his family has confirmed. He was 61 years old.
The 15th president of the Republic of the Philippines, PNoy, as he was fondly called during his presidency, was also the only son of the late democracy icon, former President Corazon Aquino, and the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr.
In a statement delivered by Pinky Aquino-Abellada, the Aquino family confirmed that their brother’s death certificate put his time of death at 6:30 am, from renal disease secondary to diabetes complications. The family also lauded PNoy, for his humility and courage. “Kagaya ng serbisyong binigay nya sa bayan, hindi maingay, trabahong galing sa puso, dahil alam nyang kayo ang boss nya, kaya nga nakilala sya bilang si PNoy. Ayaw nyang maramdaman na kailangan syang bigyan ng kakaibang pansin,” read Pinky. “Masakit po para sa amin na tahimik nyang tinanggap ang mga batikos. Natatak sa aming magkakapatid na nung sinabihan namin syang magsalita at labanan ang mga maling haka-haka, simple lamang ang sagot nya sa amin: ‘kaya pa nyang matulog sa gabi.”
“Mission accomplished ka, Noy. Be happy now with mom and dad,” she also said.
In an interview with PeopleAsia editor-in-chief Joanne Rae Ramirez in 2010, PNoy revealed that his parents did not push any of their five children toward public service, noting that his mother did say, however, that “if none of our children follow in our footsteps, Ninoy and I must have done something wrong.”
True enough, PNoy eventually traded in his career as an economist for a life in public service, when he became the Second District representative of Tarlac in 1998 and a senator in 2007. After Cory’s death in 2009, her only son also took on the torch of her crusade for clean and honest government after clinching a landslide victory with more than 13 million votes. His popularity continued throughout his term, starting with a 79-percent approval rating and an 80-percent trust rating in October 2010.
Once asked if he ever thought his parents’ enormous legacy was a burden to him, the late president said: “It was and is not a burden because they were not wrong. When my father was assassinated, I decided that I would not compete with his memory, but the priority would be to achieve his dream.”
In a 2017 interview with Ramirez, PNoy, a year after his presidency had ended, also shared: “Again I go back, if you were posed a question that said you’ll be given an opportunity to change everything and this is the cost, or you can shirk and refuse that challenge and not be able to effect this change. If things don’t change, stagnate and eventually deteriorate at some point in time, I’ll have to ask myself, ‘What if I could have done something that stopped that or reversed it?’ And through cowardice or whatever weakness in the knees, I did not? I also thought, if you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem.
The late President then continued: “I guess again we recognize that we live in an imperfect world. We’re all given a chance to do something about it. It’s just a question at the end of the day — even my faith says that — what did you do for the least of your brothers?”
