Former Philippine president Aquino dies

Former president Benigno Aquino III, whose term was marked by a long period of prosperity for the Philippines but also marred by costly political missteps, died early yesterday. He was 61.

The son of revered democracy icon and former president Corazon Aquino, Mr Aquino served as president from 2010 to 2016.

His sister read a family statement confirming that Mr Aquino died peacefully in his sleep. He had kidney failure and diabetes.

"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 Ms Pinky Aquino-Abellada.

Mr Aquino, known popularly as Noynoy, won the presidential election in 2010 following a wave of public support after his mother's death in 2009. He inherited the political legacy of his father, former senator Benigno Aquino Jr, whose assassination in 1983 sparked a popular revolt that forced dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his family, as well as cronies to flee the Philippines in 1986.

His mother became president thereafter and restored democratic institutions usurped by Marcos over 20 years of strongman rule. But high expectations of revolutionary changes were dashed by at least six plots to unseat her.

In one bloody coup in 1987 that nearly toppled Mrs Aquino's fledgling government, Mr Aquino was shot five times and three of his bodyguards killed.

This constant threat from the military forced Mrs Aquino to compromise, casting aside many of her progressive supporters and allowing the Marcoses to return home and revive their political fortunes.

Senator Imee Marcos, daughter of Marcos, yesterday struck a conciliatory tone, saying: "I will always treasure the memories of our long years together as freshmen legislators and members of a tiny opposition. Beyond politics and much public acrimony, I knew Noynoy to be a kind and simple soul."

After his mother stepped down in 1992, Mr Aquino worked for the family's sugar business. He decided to run for a seat in the House of Representatives in 1998 and later served three terms till 2007.

As president, Mr Aquino led the Philippines through a period of prosperity. It became South-east Asia's fastest-growing and most promising economy, with a growth rate of 6.2 per cent.

Philippine debt became investment grade from junk, and unemployment fell to a decade-low 6.8 per cent. Tax revenues soared to 1.06 trillion pesos (S$32 billion) in 2012 from just 779 billion pesos in 2008, while foreign direct investments grew from US$1.07 billion (S$1.5 billion) in 2010 to US$6.2 billion in 2014.

The country's ranking in Transparency International's corruption perception index improved from 139 in 2009 to 85 at end-2014.

Mr Aquino's anti-graft campaign netted three powerful senators accused of siphoning billions worth of public funds.

But his six-year term was also marred by what many saw as indecisive responses to crises and persistent allegations of cronyism.

Just two months after he took office in 2010, Mr Aquino was faced with a hostage crisis that strained ties between Manila and Hong Kong for years to come. On Aug 23 that year, a distraught former policeman with an assault rifle boarded a bus and held its Hong Kong tourists as hostages.

After a half-day of fruitless negotiation, policemen stormed the bus in a nearly comedic rescue bid: There was uncalled for sniper fire; a sledgehammer used to try to break the windows nearly fell on a Swat operative's head; and the door refused to budge as rescuers tried to open it using a rope.

Nine hostages were killed, most with shots to the head. Hong Kong demanded restitution and an apology from Mr Aquino himself.

He said he regretted the incident, but did not apologise, saying the rescue attempt was not his call.

Then in November 2013, super typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,000 and levelled large parts of central Philippines. Mr Aquino was widely criticised for his government's halting response.

In his fifth year in office, he had to deal with the fallout from a botched police operation to arrest Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan. The man was killed on Jan 25, 2015 during a raid on his hideout in Maguindanao province.

But 44 police commandos who were part of the operation died when they ran into a much larger force from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters that were said to be protecting Marwan.

It was the biggest loss ever dealt to a police special forces unit.

Mr Aquino was criticised for refusing to take full responsibility, even though he had been informed of the operation.

In his last year in office, Mr Aquino's approval ratings had fallen to their lowest. That paved the way for Mr Rodrigo Duterte to rise to power in 2016.

In a statement yesterday, Mr Duterte said the Aquino family's "legacy of offering their lives for the cause of democracy will forever be etched in our hearts".