MANILA, Philippines — Ahead of the 2022 polls, the Cojuangco-Aquino political clan has maintained its status as a regular fixture in Philippine politics, a political analyst said Sunday.
This comes after the fifteenth president of the Philippines died at the Capitol Medical Center in Quezon City. He was 61 years old.
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Speaking in an interview aired over dzMM TeleRadyo, political science professor Aries Arugay said that the "Aquino magic" will continue to secure voter support for the family moving forward.
"I observed yesterday that the Aquino magic is really an element of Philippine politics," he said in mixed Filipino and English.
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"It shows that Cojuangco-Aquino is a brand name in Philippine politics that will continuously have a constituency. They were able to sustain this for many decades."
Thousands of mourning supporters clad in yellow and black came out to pay their final respects to the country's last president who was laid to rest at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City on Saturday.
Arugay said that the outpour of support for the Aquinos after the death of the former president, who was chairman emeritus of the Liberal Party, could be sustained to build momentum until the 2022 elections.
"If we look at the late President Noynoy Aquino, he represents ideals that can be applied to people's aspirations today," he said.
"If this can be used in a campaign, the candidate should apply it on the current sentiment and aspirations of voters," he added, noting the celebrity status of Aquino's younger sister Kris, which he said could be leveraged to be a "powerful catalyst" for the opposition later on.
Aquino ran on a platform of “Daang Matuwid," Filipino for "the straight and righteous path," and vowed he would eradicate corruption, raise the conditions of people living at the margins of society and instill transparency in governance. He was known for the phrase "Kayo ang boss ko" or "You are my bosses" in addressing Filipinos.
His mother, the late Corazon Aquino, ran for office immediately after the assassination of her husband, Benigno Aquino Jr. in 1983.
But Aquino had objected to the prevalence of political dynasties in the sphere of Philippine politics during his term in office.
"There is also something wrong with giving a corrupt family or individual the chance to bathe in power all their lives," Aquino said in his last State of the Nation Address as he called for a joint session of Congress to pass an anti-dynasty law.
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On the other hand, academics and political scientists have said that the appeal of leaders like President Rodrigo Duterte, a populist leader who likes to portray himself as a tough-talking man of the people, was borne out of discontentment with post-EDSA rule in the country.
"I am embarrassed because people keep on repeating that phrase about dynasty. It’s true. It’s not good if only one family is in power for so many years. But the problem lies with the people," Duterte said in June 2019.
At the funeral mass for the late president, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas called for a return of decency in government.
“The best eulogy tribute that we can pay to our President Noy is to bring back, recover, preserve, safeguard, and never again to compromise our dignity as a people and the decency of our leaders as servants, not bosses,” Villegas said in his homily. — Franco Luna with a report from Xave Gregorio; Video by EC Toledo