Aquino's family told a news conference that he died in his sleep early Thursday due to "renal failure secondary to diabetes." A former Cabinet official, Rogelio Singson, said Aquino had been undergoing dialysis and was preparing for a kidney transplant.
"For beyond politics and much public acrimony, I knew Noynoy as a kind and simple soul. He will be deeply missed," Marcos said in a statement, using Aquino's nickname. Aquino, whose family went into exile in the U.S. during Marcos's rule, had turbulent ties with China as president. After China seized a disputed shoal in 2012 following a tense standoff in the South China Sea, Aquino authorized the filing of a complaint before an international arbitration tribunal that questioned the validity of China's sweeping claims in the strategic waterway Beijing claims virtually the entire South China Sea on historical grounds.
During his mother's tumultuous presidency, after democracy was restored, Aquino was wounded by gunfire during a failed 1987 coup attempt by rebel soldiers who attempted to lay siege on the heavily guarded Malacanang presidential palace. Three of his security escorts were killed. A bullet had remained embedded in Aquino's neck.
Public expectations of Aquino were high. While he moved against corruption -- detaining Arroyo and three powerful senators -- and initiated anti-poverty programs, the deep-seated inequalities and weak institutions in the Southeast Asian nation wracked by decades-old communist and Muslim insurgencies remained too daunting.
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