Former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, the fifteenth president of the Philippines, passed away on Thursday, June 24, 2021, at the age of 61.

Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III took the oath of office to become the 15th president of the Philippines on June 30, 2010.  Noynoy exhibited his candidacy in the Liberal Party’s presidential candidacy shortly after his mother’s death, Cory Aquino, back in 2009. As he waved his compassion for serving the Filipino people, and patrimony of his mother and father, he promised to lead the nation to prosperity, treading a straight path or “Daang Matuwid”.

His six years were marked with steady economic growth with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP growth of 7.6 percent in 2010; 7.2 percent in 2013. When he stepped down in 2016, the economy’s growth rate was at 6.9 percent. Sadly, this growth rate has dipped to 9.6 percent in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aquino insulated the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program, one way to bring economic growth to the poor. CCT was devised for the poor and disadvantaged populations who have not benefited in any form of economic growth and improving services. Throughout the implementation of the CCT programs, poor families in 17 regions in the Philippines were given allowances in exchange for promising their children to go to school and receive proper health care. Based on data from the Official Gazette, back in March and April 2015, the result of compliance from the families were at 99.91% for the deworming of children aged 6-14; 98.99% for school attendance of kids aged 6-14; 98.33% for school attendance of children in daycare aged 3-5; 97.05% for school attendance of children aged 15-18; 95.95% for health visits of pregnant women and children aged 0-5; and 94.84% for attendance in family development sessions.