Aquino, Benigno Simeon Cojuangco, III (1960-2021), also known as Noynoy, was president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016. He had previously served in the Philippine Senate and House of Representatives.
Noynoy Aquino was born on Feb. 8, 1960, in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. At the time, his father, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, was vice governor of Tarlac province on the northern Philippine island of Luzon. Ninoy Aquino later became the main political rival of President Ferdinand Marcos. From 1972 to 1980, Ninoy was imprisoned for his opposition to the Marcos regime. Marcos released Ninoy in 1980 so he could undergo a heart operation in the United States. Ninoy was joined in the United States by his wife and children. Noynoy completed his degree in economics at Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City in 1981 and then joined his family in the United States.
In August 1983, Ninoy Aquino returned to the Philippines and was assassinated. The killing shocked people in the Philippines and strengthened opponents of the government. The Aquino family returned after the assassination. Noynoy worked as a businessman. Noynoy’s mother, Corazon “Cory” Aquino, became the first woman president of the Philippines in 1986.
Noynoy first entered politics in the 1990’s. He was elected to represent Tarlac in the Philippine House of Representatives in 1998. He was reelected in 2001 and 2004. From 1999 to 2002 and from 2004 to 2006, he served as secretary general of the Liberal Party of the Philippines. In March 2006, he became the party’s vice chairman. He was elected to the Senate in 2007. In May 2010, he was elected president, defeating former president Joseph Estrada and several other candidates.
One of Noynoy Aquino’s main efforts as president was to end the Moro rebellion. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is a large Muslim rebel group in the Philippines that had been fighting for independence since the 1970’s. In 2014, Aquino’s government and the Moro rebels signed a peace agreement in which the government pledged to create an autonomous Muslim region in the southern Philippines named Bangsamoro. That region, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), was formed in 2019. Aquino died on June 24, 2021.
See also Aquino, Benigno Simeon, Jr. ; Aquino, Corazon ; Philippines, History of the .
