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Legacy of good governance: Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon honored the late President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III Tuesday, July 27, 2021, for “serving his country well, with all honesty, sincerity and the purest of intentions.” Drilon said Aquino left a legacy of a robust economy, political stability and good governance. “PNoy’s economic reforms coupled with fiscal discipline and anti-corruption initiatives enabled our country to rise as Asia’s tiger economy from being the sick man of Asia,” he said. According to Drilon, Aquino had put the poor first and laid the foundation for some big-ticket projects during his term. One of the more important and lasting legacies Aquino left, Drilon said, was the historic victory in the court of arbitration in the Hague. “Twelve days after his term ended, the arbitral tribunal issued an award in favor of the Philippines which rejected China’s expansive claims covered by its nine-dash line as being incompatible with the United Nations’ Convention of the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS. PNoy would be remembered as the one who stood up to and beat China,” Drilon said. (Albert Calvelo/Senate PRIB)