Former Senate President and House Speaker Manny Villar issued this statement following news of the passing of former President Benigno S. Aquino III:
My family and I are deeply saddened with the passing of former President Benigno S. Aquino III. We send our condolences to the Aquino family and ask that everyone honor their request for respect and privacy.
President Noynoy was a formidable political adversary at one point but he was a Filipino leader that I respected. Despite our differences, I admired his courage and vision to serve our people. We set aside those differences in order to work together in 2013 so we can build a better nation for our people.
But personally, and more significantly, I admired him greatly when he came and visited the wake of my mother in 2015. At a time of profound sadness and grief, he offered kind words of comfort, perhaps drawing from his own experience when his mother, former President Corazon Aquino died.
It is the same words of comfort that we offer to his loved ones who are grieving and to a grateful nation mourning the loss of a Filipino who served his country well.