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Filipino folk music icon Freddie Aguilar passed away at the age of 72, as reported by Billboard Philippines on May 27, 2025. General Counsel of Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, George Briones, broke the news of Aguilar's passing to news outlets.
The musician was admitted to the Philippine Heart Center on the morning of May 27, 2025, where he reportedly breathed his last at 1:30 AM. Preparations for the singer are underway as he would have to be buried in the next 24 hours as per Muslim rites.
As for his personal life, Freddie Aguilar married Josephine Quipo in 1978. He had 4 children with Quipo: Jeriko, Isabella, Jonan, and Maegan. After his divorce from Josephine Quipo in 2000, Aguilar married Antonette Martinez in 2000 and separated from her in 2005. The Filipino folk musician's last marriage was to his partner Jovie Albao in November 2013 in Buluan, Maguindanao, under Islamic rites.
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It was during his third marriage that Aguilar received a lot of backlash, given that his bride, Jovie, was only 16 years old at the time while the folk singer was 60. According to a report by Inquirer dated November 2013, Freddie Aguilar and Jovie converted to Islam to get married. The reason for the same was that Philippine law requires the girl to be at least 18 years old when getting married, while Muslim Sharia law requires that the girl be in puberty.
While there isn't much information available about the late folk musician's children, Sunstar's October 2013 report mentioned the instance of Aguilar's daughter, Maegan, coming to his defense against trolling concerning his relationship with Jovie. At the time, Aguilar's relationship was dubbed "cradle snatching," and jokes about his next song being called "Apo," meaning grandchild, were being made.
Defending her father, Maegan responded to the trolls with a "What’s your problem, morons!" and mentioned that her father loved Jovie, whose parents approved of the relationship.
Exploring Freddie Aguilar's career hits amid news of Filipino folk music icon's demise
Freddie Aguilar, aka Ferdinand Pascual Aguilar, was born on February 5, 1953. The folk singer was best known for his 1970s track Anak, which sold 33 million copies worldwide and was translated into several languages. A 2024 LinkedIn article decoded the meaning of Anak's lyrics, stating that it conveyed a message about the pain of a broken parent-child relationship.
Anak was performed in the Metro Manila Popular Music Festival. For the unversed, the music festival was considered to be a cultural equivalent of American Idol before the show was televised. Another one of the late Aguilar's tracks, Bayan Ko, also garnered popularity and became an album of protest.
As per Rolling Stone's May 27, 2025, report, Freddie Aguilar became a critic of the authoritarian rule in an era when artistic expression was restrained owing to martial law years under the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship. Moreover, the singer received the Lifetime Achievement Award from NU 107 in 1994.
In addition to becoming the voice of the people through his work, Freddie Aguilar also served as a member of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. The late singer was appointed as a commissioner of the NCCA in 2016 under President Rodrigo Duterte. Later, became the Presidential Adviser on Culture and the Arts.
