‘You look familiar’

Rest in peace: The then outgoing president Aquino (right) with new Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte during the inauguration ceremony at the Malacanang Palace grounds in Manila in 2016. — AP

WHILE most mortals have to deal with running away from their own shadow, Benigno Simeon Aquino III had this problem four-fold. He was always in the shadow of his parents (and sometimes his controversial, attention-hugging sister Kris). Even as President of the Philippines, he was always “Noy” or “Noynoy,” the son of martyred senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. (1932-1983) and the saintly former president Corazon C. Aquino, whose untimely death from cancer in 2009 is largely credited with having created the groundswell of sympathy that delivered him to Malacañang.

Friendly press called him “President Noy” or “PNoy,” while critics made fun of him as “Penoy” (unfertilised duck egg) or “Abnoy” (referring to either a stinky duck egg that did not fully develop, or a crazy unstable person). In the public eye, he seemed to have a lot more integrity that his predecessors Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo combined. His speeches were always in conversational Filipino; he seemed easy-going and uncomplicated, though he was seen by some as aloof and devoid of empathy.