More tributes for "vilified" Aquino

Mary Ann Benitez

Filipinos continued to pay tribute to the late former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, thanking a leader they believed to have been trolled and vilified by his successor’s supporters even as Aquino led a private life after his six-year term ended in June 2016.

Aquino, known affectionately as PNoy (after the colloquial name for Filipinos -- Pinoy), died Thursday morning (June 24) in a hospital after apparently dying in his sleep while at home in Quezon City.

His family had him cremated that same day followed by a wake on Friday at his alma mater Ateneo De Manila University’s church, and funeral ceremony with a 21-gun salute by the armed forces on Saturday.

His ashes were buried next to his democracy icon parents, assassinated senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino II and Corazon “Cory” Aquino, the beloved president who booted out dictator Ferdinand Marcos out of office after a 22-year rule.

Noynoy, the only son and third child of five children of the Aquinos, was 61 and died of renal failure due to diabetes after being declared he had passed away at the private Capitol Medical Center.

Many common folks laid wreaths and offered prayers today as they visited the tomb of Noynoy Aquino whose urn of cremated ashes was laid to rest beside his parents at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque in Metro Manila.

People can visit the memorial park from 7am to 5pm, but children are banned from visiting due to Covid-19 restrictions. Aquino’s residence at Times Street in Quezon City also has seen people leaving flowers and praying for the late president.

Former Aquino Cabinet officials revealed that Aquino had been in and out of hospital since 2019, after being diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension, which led to end-stage kidney failure that saw him having dialysis three times a week at the luxurious private Makati Medical Center.

He had been awaiting a kidney transplant and underwent an angioplasty early May after doctors diagnosed him with 70 to 80 percent heart blockage, according to Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas.

Villegas had told churchgoers at Aquino’s funeral Mass last Saturday about his ill health but said the president continued to joke about it and talking about the food that he liked to eat.

Villegas also hit out at the trolls and social media critics of Aquino, purportedly Duterte supporters who had been maligning Aquino’s administration as a failed presidency to boost his own failed response to Covid-19 pandemic and the worst economic performance in Asia.

Aquino was known for his anti-corruption drive Daang Matuwid (Straight Path) and slogan “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” (There will be no poor if no one is corrupt).

Aquino made good on this drive, including having his predecessor president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo arrested for corruption and the then-Supreme Court chief justice impeached.

During Aquino's six-year term, his country’s average annual economic growth averaged over 6 percent, the highest since the 1970s while US-based Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, cited Aquino for improving the Philippines standing from 89th in 2014 to 76th in 2015 in its 2015 Index of Economic Freedom.

Many Filipinos also took pride in Aquino -- an economist and a bachelor -- having launched a landmark case with a UN-backed tribunal in the Hague to challenge China's claims to most of the South China Sea, including its incursions into the West Philippine Sea.

The Philippines won in the arbitral ruling against China, which Duterte however abandoned and dismissed as "just a piece of paper".

The Philippine consulate in Hong Kong opened an online book of condolence and also said messages of condolences may be sent to the family of the country’s 15th president through the link (https://tinyurl.com/eCondolencePNoy)

The online book of condolence will remain open until Saturday, (July 3) and so far has attracted at least 755 likes, 13 comments and shared 17 times.

Millions others preferred Aquino’s Facebook page, which has 3.8 million followers, to post their thoughts of the president.

Rene Almendras, Aquino’s secretary of foreign affairs, revealed at the weekend at Aquino's wake that towards September 2019, Aquino underwent a minor spinal tap sampling and when he was given anesthesia “the president flatlined for a few seconds”.

“We were so troubled, we did not know what to do. It was fortunate the president was revived,” Almendras said, adding that Aquino did not want people to know about his ill health because he did not want to bother others outside of his closest aides and sisters and did not want to attract sympathy.

Duterte ordered flags to fly at half-mast and national mourning for Aquino until July 3. He had not appeared at any of the services for his predecessor however.

Only Duterte's rival, Vice President Leni Robredo, now chairwoman of Aquino's Liberal Party, was present.

Aquino won his election in 2010 by a landslide, persuading voters he was morally fit for the job and would represent ordinary Filipinos.

He was a congressman from 1998 to 2007 and a senator from 2007-2010, before deciding after much thought to run for the presidency after his mother died in 2009.

He attended the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon city from primary to university, finishing his Bachelor of Arts major in economics. He joined his family in their exile in the United States after graduating in 1981.

His former speechwriter Gian Lao had recalled in a special tribute to his boss: “Before Ninoy Aquino left the United States to return to the Philippines in 1983, he took his only son (Noynoy) aside, and told him that if the worst came to pass, then he would have to be the man of the house. He was 22—and was spending most of his days listening to records in their basement. ”

Lao continued: “During (State of the Nation Address) season, we would sit with him every morning with a new draft and take note of his comments as he smoked cigarettes, drank Coke Regular, and ate chicharon (pork rind chips).

He knew by heart all the numbers that defined his administration: 4.4 million households receiving Conditional Cash Transfers -- up from 800,000 in 2010. US$6.2 billion in net foreign direct investments, up from US$1.07 billion. 66,800 classrooms. 12,184 kilometers of national roads. This was when we saw that he was Ninoy’s son -- how much he read, how much he remembered, how much he cared.

“Perhaps the difference was in how undisputedly kooky he was. Once, he told us the intro of the speech needs to be catchy, like: ‘Wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy.’” I had to ask myself: Did the president just quote Kesha?”
maryann.benitez@singtaonewscorp.com