Manila: Agapito “Butz” Aquino, a democracy advocate, former senator, actor and uncle to the incumbent President Benigno Aquino III, died on Monday afternoon.
The 76-year-old former politician was cremated at around 7am on Tuesday at the Arlington Memorial Chapel in suburban Quezon City.
Reports only mentioned that the Butz had died of natural causes while confined at the Cardinal Santos Medical Centre in suburban Mandaluyong City.
Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said with the passing of Aquino, “the Filipino people lost a committed public servant.”
“Aquino had originally chosen a quiet life as an entrepreneur, but in the face of the dictatorship’s tyranny, he became one of the front-line fighters for the restoration of our democracy,” Lacierda said.
Butz had founded the August 21 Movement or Atom, an organisation which takes its name from the date his elder brother, former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr, was assassinated.
Atom and later, the social democratic organisation, the Bandila were among the groups that held massive rallies that ousted the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Sr in February 1986.
But before he became a politician, Aquino had been an actor.
Filipinos remember him for his roles in dramas and as an endorser of cough syrup during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Senate President Franklin Drilon said Aquino had played an important role in the uprising against Marcos.
“Butz had played a very important role in the Edsa revolution. He was a civic organiser … As a legislator, his legacy laws have been benefiting our countrymen, such as the Magna Carta for Small Farmers and the Cooperative Code of the Philippines,” he said.
After gaining prominence as the brother of slain Ninoy, Butz was elected Senator in 1987 and was subsequently re-elected to several terms until 1995.
In 1998, he was voted congressional representative of Makati and was elected to the same post for three more three-year terms.
Butz is survived by his wife, Popsy Mendez-Aquino, and their children, Roxanne, Jackie and Bobby.
Butz was among the eleven children of former Philippine Assembly Benigno Simeon Sr. He is also brother to former Senator Tessie Aquino-Oreta.
