Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III, set to take over as president of the Philippines has vowed to keep his campaign promise to restore the government’s credibility by prosecuting corrupt officials.
Senator Aquino, whose father was assassinated while opposing a dictatorship and whose mother led the “people power” revolt that restored freedoms, led the nine candidate presidential race with 40.19 percent of the votes from about 78 percent of the precincts, while his closest rival, former President Joseph Estrada, had 25.46 percent at Press Time.
There is no runoff in the Philippines, and whoever has the most votes is declared winner.
In his first public remarks after Monday’s vote, Aquino thanked Filipinos for the huge support and said he would deliver on a campaign promise to fight corruption and government malaise.
“I will not steal, but I’ll have the corrupt arrested,” Aquino told a news conference in his northern home province of Tarlac.
Outgoing President Gloria Arroyo, who is standing down at the end of her second term in office as required by the constitution, has promised to make the handover of power as easy as possible.
“The true hallmark of a strong, functioning democracy is a smooth transition to a new government,” she said.
“The people deserve to have their new leaders put aside politics and focus on the future and the business of governing.”
Arroyo will hand over power on 30 June but was running for a seat in Congress - initial results indicated she was successful.
Two high-profile candidates running for posts - former first lady Imelda Marcos and world champion boxer Manny Pacquiao - also won their seats.
Filipinos cast their ballots last Monday for a new president, vice-president and more than 17,000 other official posts.
About 75% of the more than 50 million registered voters in the country had cast a ballot.
The election day was marred by deaths from political violence
Fears of widespread chaos resulting from the use of new automated voting machines failed to materialise.
The new machines did cause long delays but voters waited patiently for hours in the heat to vote.
Despite high security, voting was marred by the deaths of at least 12 people in political violence.
The deaths came after a bloody campaign period in which more than 30 people died. Another 57 died in a mass killing in November.
Aquino had been the pre-election favourite. Correspondents say the 50-year-old’s political pedigree - as the son of the beloved former president - has been the secret of his success.
He is considered honest and well-intentioned despite his somewhat low-profile career as a legislator.
Speaking while votes were being counted, Mr Aquino vowed that if confirmed as president he would adhere to his election pledges.
“I will go back to my campaign slogan, government has lost its power to positively affect our people’s lives because of corruption, therefore the first priority has to be address the issue of corruption,” he said.
“Get government’s power back so they can empower the people. And empower them in so many areas, like education, in health, in having a judicial system that works, and so on and so forth.”
He also did not forget to thank the Lord who, he said, guided and secured him from harm during the 90-day campaign period.
Aquino, said he planned to have the incumbent Gloria Arroyo investigated for alleged vote-rigging.
He said that while he made no judgement about Arroyo’s guilt or otherwise, she should be investigated over a phone call she allegedly made to an election commissioner during the 2004 presidential poll.
‘The bottom line is, these allegations of vote manipulation during the 2004 elections have never been settled,’ Aquino told AFP in an interview as he awaited official confirmation of his victory in Monday’s election.
‘Was there such a conversation? Did it occur? And if it did occur, who was responsible? What did they exploit? What weaknesses with our laws were exploited?’
‘I intend to come up a mechanism that will solve each and everyone of these issues, with the end view of, if there is a crime, charging the people who are guilty, ensuring they go to jail and delivering a message that there is certainty in this country that if you commit a crime you will be punished.’
Arroyo is the suspected voice in a telephone recording in which a woman appeared to pressure an election official into ensuring the 2004 presidential vote count stayed in her favour.
Without admitting that she was the woman in the call or doing anything against the law, Arroyo apologised to the nation and later rode out two ensuing impeachment attempts against her.
Meanwhile, The Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) said that the overseas absentee voting reached 134,000, equivalent to 23 percent of the total registered voters.
Comelec Commissioner Armando Velasco said the highest absentee voting turnout was registered in Hong Kong and Singapore where the automated elections system (AES) using the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines were held.
Of the 8 million Filipino migrant workers, 589,830 of them have registered for the May 2010 overseas absentee voting. The absentee voting was held from April 10 to May 10.

All the President’s plans

Below are some of the policy pronouncements Benigno Aquino, had made during his campaign to be president.

• Target tax evaders and big smugglers, aiming to collect P150 billion and raise the tax efficiency rate

• A key measurement of tax collection – by 2 percentage points from around 13 percent currently.

• Strengthen an existing carrot-and-stick mechanism at the two main tax agencies to raise perennially weak revenues, and push for higher salaries to cut down on corruption.

• May consider raising taxes if it was clear the budget shortfall was unlikely to be cut quickly by anti-evasion and anti-smuggling measures.

• Streamline fiscal incentives offered to investors, such as tax holidays, to bring in more revenues.

• Impose a ‘’zero budgeting’’ measure, in which all major ticket items under the P1.54-trillion 2010 budget will be re-examined, aiming to get back some of the P280 billion lost to corruption in 2009.

• Reduce red tape and simplify procedures in doing business.

• Improve transportation and housing infrastructure, invest in early childhood education, and achieve 100 percent health care protection in three years or less from 38 percent now.

• Promote industries with the greatest potential for growth and where the Philippines has a competitive advantage, such as agribusiness, business process outsourcing, creative industries, infrastructure, manufacturing and logistics, socially responsible mining, and tourism and retirement.

• Form a group to review possible changes to economic provisions in the constitution, one of the most important legacies of Aquino’s mother during her term in office from 1986 to 1992, in his first 100 days as president.

There are some strongly nationalist economic provisions in the constitution, including restrictions on foreign investment in some sectors and on foreigners owning land.

• Require department secretaries, heads of agencies, and senior officials to have their statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) available and accessible to the public.

• Strengthen the Justice Department and the Office of the Ombudsman. Implement fully the Prosecution Service Act to strengthen the national prosecution service, attract qualified lawyers, and institutionalize a more effective witness protection program.

• Upgrade the army and increase defense spending to 2 percent of GDP, or more than P100 billion, from 1 percent or P57 billion now, the lowest among the six major Southeast Asian states. He has also vowed to end corruption in military procurement and dismantle private armies.

• Review the security treaty with the United States and pursue peace talks with Maoist-led rebels and Muslim separatists