MANILA: Former Philippine president Benigno Aquino was buried on Saturday amid calls for Filipinos to honour his legacy by remembering to choose leaders who are decent and to never again compromise the people's dignity.
The 61-year-old Aquino, popularly known as Noynoy, died on Thursday due to renal disease, secondary to diabetes, at the age of 61.
He was president from 2010 to 2016, and was credited for cementing a Philippine economic revival, passing a controversial reproductive health law and filing a successful arbitration case against China over the disputed South China Sea.
"The best eulogy tribute we can pay to our dear President Noynoy 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," Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in his homily at the funeral Mass for the bachelor president.
"The flags at half mast are not only for the dead president but for the dying decent governance," he added.
The rule of Aquino's successor, President Rodrigo Duterte, has been characterised by a violent illegal drug war that has left thousands dead, vulgar and misogynistic statements, and constant threats of arrests or being killed for opposing his policies.
"Maybe, and I do hope, his death will spark another fire within us to resurrect his example of decency and integrity," Villegas said.
"The sincerest form of tribute to President Noynoy is to relive his life lessons of decency and ethical leadership, recover honour and dignity in our private and public lives, among us private citizens and among our leaders," Villegas said
As president, the younger Aquino led the Philippines in shedding its perennial "sick man of Asia" image through better governance and robust economic growth. He challenged Beijing's sweeping claims of the South China Sea before the arbitration court in The Hague in 2013.
Aquino, who led a private life after stepping down, is survived by four sisters.
The best tribute for the late president 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," Archbishop Socrates Villegas, former president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, said in his homily.
President Rodrigo Duterte, criticised by the Catholic church and rights group for crassness and his bloody war on drugs but hugely popular as a man of the people, did not attend the funeral. - dpa/Reuters
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