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On June 24, former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III died of heart failure at a hospital in manila, the capital, at the age of 61.
On 26 June, Aquino III was buried in the Manila Cemetery, buried next to his late parents. The Aquino family refused to hold a state funeral for Aquino III. In 2009, when Aquino III's mother, Corrazon Aquino, died, then-President Arroyo offered to hold a state funeral for her, but the Aquino family refused.
During his tenure, Aquino III pursued a pro-American line and fiercely clashed with neighboring countries in the South China Sea dispute, triggering diplomatic relations and regional tensions, and provoking the so-called "South China Sea arbitration", which led to a low point in China-Philippines relations. In fact, Aquino III is of Chinese descent, and his mother, Lady Aquino, is a fourth-generation Chinese from the prestigious Hsu Huan Ge family in the Central Luzon Tala province of the Philippines.
The history of political development since the independence of the Philippines is basically monopolized by the major political families, basically a door valve politics cloaked in a layer of American democracy. The Aquino family is an old political family in the Philippines, which has a long tradition of politics, and has produced two presidents, mother and son.
Today we will talk about the story of these two former presidents of Chinese descent and the Aquino family.
The Aquino family is a famous political family in the Philippines, as early as the Spanish colonial period, the ancestors were already senior officials of the government, and the ability of standard politicians to see the wind and make the rudder will not be bad, so whether the United States or Japan occupies the Philippines later, it has no impact on their political future.
The Aquino family's political base is in The Province of Tarlac. Not only are there political resources within the family, but even names are passed down between three generations of grandchildren, and they use the same name, "Benigno Simeon Aquino". In order to distinguish, the three grandchildren are called Aquino I, Aquino II, and Aquino III.
Aquino II
His grandfather, Aquino I, was the speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives and laid a solid foundation for the future of the family. His son, Aquino II, was a talented teenager who entered the Philippine Times at the age of 17 and became the youngest war correspondent. At the age of 22, he was elected as the youngest mayor of Manila.
In 1954, Aquino II married Maria Corazon Cominenko, daughter of the magnate. It was a powerful marriage, and the witness of this grand wedding was then President Magsay.
Aquino II married Corazon Cominenko
Kola Songben surname Xu, ancestral home of Fujian, great-grandfather Xu Shangzhi immigrated to the Philippines in 1861 after changing his name to Xu Yuhuan, after years of operation, the Kemin Anko family became a local Wang ethnic group in the Philippines. Corazon's grandfather, father, and brother all served as members of Congress, her uncle and cousin served as senators, and the family intermarried with another rich family in the Philippines, the Sumuron family.
Through this marriage, the three most powerful families, the Sumilon family, the Kominonko family and the Aquino family, were united and formed an unbreakable political alliance. For Aquino II, with strong support and financial support, it was only a matter of time before he reached the top of power.
Aquino II and Lady Aquino
In 1959, at the age of 27, Aquino II became the vice governor of his family's stronghold of Tala Province, and two years later became governor of Tala Province. He became a Member of the Philippine Senate in 1967 at the age of 35 and the head of the Liberal Party in 1968 at the age of 36. Aquino II's political success put enormous pressure on then-President Ferdinand Marcos.
In 1972, Philippine President Marcos, who had been in power for seven years, declared martial law, and opposition leader Benigno Aquino II was charged with jail with numerous politicians and journalists. After 5 years in prison, Aquino II was sentenced to death on charges of subversive activities, but due to protests from people at home and abroad, President Marcos ordered a retrial of the case.
In May 1980, Aquino II was released on parole to seek medical treatment in the United States, but was in effect exiled in disguise and spent three years in exile in the United States. After a long and coordinated struggle, Marcos was forced to promise to resume party activities from 1983 onwards, agreeing to hold parliamentary elections in May 1984.
With Marcos' security assurances, Aquino II chose to return to Manila from the United States, and on August 21, 1983, Aquino II was shot in the head while stepping out of the cabin while security guards were present, at the age of 51.
The international community reacted strongly to the murder of Aquino II, which triggered a number of rallies against the Marcos regime in the Philippines, and Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, pointed out that Marcos was the culprit behind the bloody case.
On August 21, 1983, Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino was shot dead at the airport while returning home. Mrs. Aquino at her husband's funeral on August 31.
The Marcos regime then ordered the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry, after which the court began an eight-month trial based on the testimony and evidence gathered by the Commission of Inquiry, during which 53 sessions were held and 108 witnesses were called, but the mastermind remains headless to this day. However, the murder was believed to have been led by the Marcos government.
After the murder of Aquino II, the opposition was leaderless, and two years later, Mrs. Aquino was elected to take over her husband's legacy and become the leader of the opposition. Under pressure from the United States, Marcos announced that elections would be held 16 months earlier on January 17, 1986.
Mrs. Aquino
Marcos did not take Madame Aquino seriously. Although Mrs. Aquino came from a political elite, she had basically no experience in politics in the first half of her life, and as a housewife, she taught her children at home, and did not seem to show any commendable political talent. Musk clearly underestimated the woman's fortitude and determination.
Within the first month of the campaign, Mrs. Aquino traveled to 24 of the country's 74 provinces. Judging from the momentum of the campaign, it is clear that it has the upper hand. On 7 February 1986, the general elections officially began, but fraud and violence prevailed in the elections. Although the National Assembly announced that Marcos had defeated Mrs. Aquino, both domestically and internationally, expressed its support for the outcome of the election.
On the 25th, Mrs. Aquino delivered a speech on national television, announcing that she had officially taken over national power and became the first female president in the history of the Philippines and Asian countries.
After becoming president, Mrs. Aquino was very close to the people, devoted herself to the construction of democratic politics in the Philippines, always maintained an image of integrity and integrity, was deeply loved by the Filipino people, and was regarded as the soul of the Philippine democratization road. With her unremitting efforts, the Philippines has taken a series of prudent measures in the political and economic fields, which have greatly improved the grim situation facing the country.
Mrs. Aquino also attaches great importance to the country's independence and autonomy, and has stopped the US-Philippines military base agreement that has long contained the Philippines. During her administration, the Philippine economy also gradually recovered, reversing the negative economic growth under the dictatorship of former President Marcos, while stabilizing the contradictions between the government and the military to a certain extent.
Mrs. Aquino's political stance is pro-China, and after taking office, she actively developed friendly relations with China, and during her presidency, she made a special trip to Hongwei Village in Fujian Province, where she was born, to seek her roots and ask her ancestors. Mrs. Aquino publicly mentioned her Chinese identity, saying that her "roots" are in China, "I am proud that I have Chinese roots." ”
Mrs. Aquino stepped down as president in 1992 and remained active in the political arena for a long time. In August 2009, Mrs. Aquino died, and hundreds of thousands of people bid farewell at the funeral.
Aquino II and his wife, Corrazon Aquino, had four daughters and one son, and Aquino III was the only son of his parents, and of course he also embarked on the road to politics.
Aquino III's childhood
Aquino III studied economics at at Ythonne University in Manila, and shortly after his father was shot, Aquino III became a member of the Philippine Business and Society Promotion Association, and has been assisting his mother since then, and has embarked on the road to politics very early. But he has always lived in the shadow of his family, whose identity includes ,in addition to being "the son of Mrs. Aquino," but also "the brother of the famous talk show host Chrissy Aquino."
Mr. and Mrs. Aquino II and their five children, the first from the left is Aquino III
Aquino III, like his father, was a victim of an assassination campaign. In 1987, Aquino III suffered an assassination of Mrs. Aquino, killing 3 of the 4 bodyguards, and Aquino III himself was shot five times, but survived, and a fragment of a bullet remained in his neck.
It is said that this assassination made Aquino III have a certain degree of psychological problems, dare not be too close to people, so born in 1960, he did not marry until his death, but constantly changed girlfriends, there are 18 girlfriends exposed by the Philippine media, and those who have not been exposed do not know how much.
Madame Aquino had always had hopes for her only son, but she had not seen her son, Aquino III, inherit her mantle. On September 9, 2009, 40 days after his mother's death, Aquino III announced his candidacy for the 2010 presidential race as a Candidate for the Liberal Party.
Aquino III appeared in front of people with a tough anti-corruption image, daring to criticize the corruption and inaction of the then President, Mrs. Arroyo, and became a rising star in the political arena. Eventually, in 2010, he defeated his rivals by an absolute margin and was elected president of the Philippines. It can be said that his election depended heavily on the good popular foundation laid for him by his parents.
Aquino III did not inherit his mother's political ideas at all, and failed to live up to the original intention of the people to remember his mother and make him come to power, but instead went against the grain, pursued a pro-American line, took the United States as the leader of the horse, was willing to be the "pawn of the horse" of the Western countries, spent a lot of state finances to buy second-hand weapons and equipment of the United States, and also "knelt down" to welcome back the US military base that his mother had driven away so hard.
Aquino III was also the president with the most conflicted relations with China, and during his administration, due to the pro-American and pro-Japanese foreign policy he vigorously advocated, bilateral relations with China have been at odds, and even dropped to a freezing point. Not only did it hype up the Huangyan Dao issue, condone the anti-China opposition of the extremist forces in china, cooperate with the United States to make enemies of China on the South China Sea issue for its own selfish interests, and even kidnap ASEAN countries to confront China together.
The most representative is that he planned the so-called "China-Philippines South China Sea Dispute Arbitral Tribunal". Without China's participation, the Philippines unilaterally recruited Shunji Yanai, the so-called president of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, to set up a "China-Philippines South China Sea Dispute Arbitral Tribunal" under the "Permanent Court of Arbitration." The essence of the so-called "ruling" is a political farce cloaked in the cloak of law.
Aquino III was tough on the South China Sea, aiming to borrow nationalist sentiments and portray himself as an "iron-fisted leader," but it was clear that he had chosen the wrong target. Lacking public support, Aquino III abandoned the idea of running for re-election in 2016.
However, popular discontent will not be dissipated by his abandonment of re-election, and the opposition will not let him go because he stepped down. After Aquino III stepped down, the opposition accused him of corruption, bribery, nepotism. He was suspected of "usurping power" in the Mamathabano incident in 2015, which has made his life out of office less peaceful.
Aquino III and Duterte
After leaving office, Aquino III was prosecuted several times and even restricted from leaving the country. Given his health problems, as well as the lengthy legal process, he did not end up in jail. Writing about this can't help but feel a little emotional, sure enough, rich is not more than three generations, expensive is only three generations, after Aquino III, although the Aquino family will push the spokesperson again, but they are afraid that there will be no future generations in this branch.