MANILA (- Former Philippine president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, the reserved scion of one of Asia’s most famous political families, died Thursday from kidney failure. He was 61. Aquino, who was in office from 2010 to 2016, was the only son of the late former president Corazon Aquino and her assassinated husband, senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, both revered for leading the struggle to restore democracy in the archipelago nation. President Rodrigo Duterte declared a 10-day period of national mourning to honour his predecessor and critic, with the Philippine flag to be flown at half-mast on all government buildings and facilities in the country and abroad. After cremation, the urn containing his remains will be displayed for a one-day public viewing Friday at a Manila university where he earned an economics degree in his youth, Aquino’s spokeswoman said. “Let us all take this opportunity to unite in prayer and set aside our differences as we pay respects to a leader who has given his best to serve the Filipino people,” Duterte said in a statement. He praised the Aquino family’s “legacy of offering their lives for the cause of democracy”. Aquino “died peacefully in his sleep”, said Pinky Aquino-Abellada, one of his four sisters. He suffered kidney failure and also had diabetes. “No words can express how broken our hearts are and how long it will take for us to accept the reality that he is gone,” said Abellada, reading from a statement outside the mortuary where her brother’s body had been taken.