Filipinos honoured the late Philippine President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III by lighting buildings up in yellow, tying yellow ribbons around trees and lamp posts, and staging makeshift memorials in their area.
Aquino, son of two of the country’s greatest democracy icons, died from kidney disease on Thursday at the age of 61.
His funeral mass was held on Saturday and President Rodrigo Duterte declared 10 days of national mourning.
Aquino, the country’s 15th president, was inaugurated in June 2010 following a landslide election win delivered on the back a strong anti-graft campaign.
Calls for him to run mounted after the death in August 2009 of his mother, Corazon Aquino, a former president and wife of For supporters, an Aquino was the answer to the massive corruption plaguing the country.
Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr, was assassinated in 1983 on the tarmac of Manila International Airport — subsequently renamed in his honour — as he returned from exile in the US.
The opposition leader’s callous murder was the catalyst for People Power, the revolutionary movement that brought down the Marcos dictatorship and catapulted Corazon Aquino, a housewife, into the presidency.
Buildings lit up
Several institutions including the Philippine Educational Theater Association, Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), and Roxas City Heritage Zone lit up their buildings in yellow to pay homage to “Noynoy” Aquino III.
The CCP explained that the color was a “symbol for freedom from dictatorship and reinstating democratic institutions.”
De La Salle University’s St La Salle Hall was lit in Philippine flag colors and adorned with black and yellow cloth to “honour President Aquino’s service to the Filipino people”.
While some individuals took to social media to say thanks to Aquino, so much so that #PaalamPNoy became a top trending hashtag on Twitter, there were also many Filipinos across the Philippines who brought their tributes to the streets.
Supporters of Noynoy Aquino offered flowers and prayers at a makeshift memorial near his residence at Times Street, Quezon City.
Others, meanwhile, placed black and yellow ribbons on the fence of the Ateneo de Manila University campus on Katipunan Avenue. The wake of the former president was earlier open for public viewing at the Ateneo’s Church of the Gesu.
Some had tied yellow ribbons around trees and lamp posts, while others had set up makeshift memorials in their own areas.
Here are some of the tributes that Filipinos made for Aquino:
Republished with permission.
