Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. was born in Concepcion, Tarlac, to a prosperous family of hacenderos (landlords), original owners of Hacienda Tinang, Hacienda Lawang and Hacienda Murcia.
His grandfather, Servillano Aquino, was a general in the revolutionary army of Emilio Aguinaldo.
His father, Benigno S. Aquino, Sr. (1894–1947) was a prominent member of the World War II Japanese collaborationist government of José P. Laurel, as Vice-President. In fact, his father once occupied the Arlegui Mansion guest house, originally owned by the Spanish-Filipino Laperal family of Manila and Baguio, the same house that his wife Cory Aquino used as private quarters during her presidency and the same house his son Noynoy Aquino candidly refused for having 'too many memories.' His father was one of two politicians representing Tarlac during his lifetime. The other was Jose Cojuangco, father of his future wife.
Honest politicians, the Aquinos were known to refuse any government stipend, choosing instead to utilize their landholdings. By the end of the second World War, most of these haciendas have been mortgaged, or acquired as dacion en pago by other prominent Pampango families.
His mother was Doña Aurora Aquino-Aquino (who was also his father's third cousin).
Another relative was his father's cousin, Paz Aquino Gueco, of Magalang, Pampanga just south of the Aquino bastion of Concepcion, Tarlac, married to former Speaker Daniel Romualdez y Zialcita, through whom he first met, by the Parua river in between Magalang and Concepcion towns, a young Imelda Romualdez, as a guest to the Chinese-Filipino Gueco family picnic. En route to the Aquino house in New Santa Mesa, Quezon City from his work in old Manila, Ninoy was regularly asked by Paz to escort her husband's cousin on certain nights. Imelda was working nearby in the music emporiums of the Escolta, downtown Santa Cruz, Manila. Relatives recall the simple Ninoy would therefore not ride the proletarian jeepney. Instead, to make his cousin's ward comfortable, he would hire a taxicab from Santa Cruz to Quezon City. If Ninoy came home on a taxicab, then that would only mean that he passed by Pacing and Danieling's home. Little did he know that she would become the wife of his enemy.
His father died while Benigno Aquino was in his teens prior to coming to trial on treason charges resulting from his collaboration with the Japanese during the occupation.
Aquino was educated in private schools — St. Joseph's College, Ateneo de Manila, National University, and De La Salle College. He finished high school at San Beda College. Aquino took his tertiary education at the Ateneo de Manila to obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree, but he interrupted his studies. According to one of his biographies, he considered himself to be an average student; his grade was not in the line of 90's nor did it fall into the 70's.
At age 17, he was the youngest war correspondent to cover the Korean War for the newspaper The Manila Times of Joaquín "Chino" Roces. Because of his journalistic feats, he received the Philippine Legion of Honor award from President Elpidio Quirino at age 18.
At 21, he became a close adviser to then defense secretary Ramón Magsaysay. Ninoy took up law at the University of the Philippines, where he became a member of the Upsilon Sigma Phi, the same fraternity of Ferdinand Marcos. He interrupted his studies again however to pursue a career in journalism.
According to Máximo V. Soliven, Aquino "later 'explained' that he had decided to go to as many schools as possible, so that he could make as many new friends as possible." In early 1954, he was appointed by President Ramon Magsaysay, his wedding sponsor to his 1953 wedding at the Our Lady of Sorrows church in Pasay with Corazon Cojuangco, to act as personal emissary to Luis Taruc, leader of the Hukbalahap rebel group. After four months of negotiations, he was credited for Taruc's unconditional surrender.
He became mayor of Concepcion in 1955 at the age of 22.
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