Aquino, Benigno Simeon Cojuangco,
3d,
1960–2021, Philippine businessman and political leader, son of Benigno Aquino 2d and
Corazon Aquino. After earning his college degree in economics
(1981), Aquino spent two years in exile with his family, returning in 1983 shortly after his
father was assassinated upon his own return. From the mid-1980s he worked in business, mainly
for family-owned companies. He was severely wounded (1987) in an attempted coup against his
mother, who was then Philippine president. Aquino first ran for elected office in 1998, when
he won the first of three terms as a congressman, and was elected a senator in 2007. After his
mother's death in 2009, many of her allies and supporters called on him to run for president,
and he soon became the Liberal party's candidate. Running on an anticorruption and antipoverty
platform, he was handily elected to the presidency in May, 2010. During his term
(2010–16) the country's economy improved and corruption was reduced, but poverty
remained a significant problem, and he was unable to finalize a peace pact to end the conflict
with the Moros in the S Philippines.
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