Aquino, the first female president of the Philippines, led the country from 1986 to 1992. She put into place a new constitution that limited the terms of presidents to a single six-year term and survived seven coup attempts as she steered the country.

She was born Jan 25, 1933 as the sixth of eight children of a landed family in the northern Philippine province of Tarlac. She was married to the former opposition senator Benigno 'Ninoy' Aquino, whose assassination in 1983 galvanised the opposition against Marcos.

While she had a law degree, Cory was a full-time housewife and mother of five children, all of whom were at her bedside when she died.

'Her kids were praying the rosary when she peacefully passed away,' close family friend Boy Abunda told reporters outside the hospital. 'They were praying the Sorrowful Mystery when she breathed her last. Everyone quietly cried.'

Former president Fidel Ramos, who succeeded Aquino, said he believed that not only the Filipinos but the entire world was grieving for his predecessor's death.

'Cory Aquino represented the best of the Filipino, the past and the future,' he said.

Ousted president Joseph Estrada, who was removed from office by a mass uprising that Aquino supported, said her guidance would be missed by Filipinos.

'Today, our country has lost a mother,' he said. 'We wish she could have lived longer because we need her especially now that our constitution is being threatened anew. Now, we must honour her by pursuing the principles she portrayed and fighting for our democracy as she did.'