“It is with profound sadness that I learned this morning of the passing of former Pres. Benigno Aquino,” Supreme Court justice Marvic Leonen, who was himself tapped for the role by Aquino, said in a statement on Thursday.
Aquino was rushed to a hospital in Quezon City earlier on Thursday, where he died of heart failure, the Manila Bulletin reported, citing family members.
Known by his nickname ‘Noynoy,’ the former leader descended from two major figures in Philippine politics, with his mother Corazon Aquino leading the ‘People Power’ movement and serving as president between 1986 and 1992. She was the country’s first female head of state.
Aquino was wounded in a failed 1987 coup attempt against his mother’s government, in which he was shot five times and three of his personal bodyguards were killed.