Manila, May 12: Philippine presidential front-runner Benigno Aquino began preparing Wednesday for office with a pledge to bring in clean government as he awaited a formal proclamation of his landslide election win.
The son of late democracy icon Corazon Aquino is virtually certain of taking over the nation’s top job with latest figures showing he has an unassailable lead over his rivals, although the final results have yet to be declared.
In an interview on Tuesday, he vowed to fight the corruption endemic in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation and said he would probe outgoing President Gloria Arroyo over an alleged vote-rigging incident in 2004.
The 50-year-old senator rode a wave of support from the “People Power” movement of his democracy hero parents in Monday’s election after almost a decade of rule by the unpopular and corruption-tainted Arroyo.
“I want to lead by example. We talk about corruption. I did make a public vow, I will never steal,” Aquino said in the interview, adding that this would give him the “moral authority” to make others conform.
Although counting is not yet complete, partial results show Aquino securing about 40 percent of the estimated 37.5 million votes cast in the country’s first automated polls.
His closest rival, former president Joseph Estrada, 73, was trailing on 25 percent of the vote, with Arroyo’s chosen successor and former defence secretary Gilberto Teodoro running a distant third.
But a proclamation can only be made after 100 percent of the data arrives.
Among the winners of the thousands of other posts up for grabs nationwide on Monday were Imelda Marcos, the flamboyant shoe-loving widow of toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao.
Aquino — who only decided to run after the death of his mother last year — said he was aiming to pick his cabinet members ahead of the handover of power “so that come July 1, everybody is performing what they are supposed to do.”
His party spokesman Lorenzo Tanada said he would appoint a transition team on Wednesday or Thursday in order to coordinate with the outgoing scandal-plagued administration of the 63-year-old Arroyo.
Aquino, who was once taught economics by Arroyo only to become one of her fiercest critics, said she should be investigated over a phone call she allegedly made to an election commissioner during the 2004 election.
Arroyo’s spokesman said she would not enjoy any legal immunity for her actions as president but was ready to face any investigation, confident she would be found innocent.
“This offers the president an opportunity to answer these accusations, to clear the air and submit herself to the judgement of history,” presidential spokesman Gary Olivar told AFP Wednesday.
Arroyo, who took office in 2001 when Estrada was deposed for corruption and then won her own election in 2004, will not be disappearing from public life as she won a seat in Congress, where she is expected to build a new power base.
She is suspected of being the voice in a telephone recording of a woman appearing to pressure an election official into ensuring the 2004 presidential vote count stayed in her favour.
Arroyo has apologised for making the call but denied any wrongdoing, and has ridden out past impeachment attempts in Congress.
Aquino’s mother Corazon Aquino led the “People Power” revolution that overthrew the late dictator Marcos in 1986 and then served as president.
His father, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, was shot dead in 1983 as he attempted to return from US exile to lead the movement against Marcos.
Shares surged Tuesday on Aquino’s expected victory, but on Wednesday some profit-taking set in as investors awaited the formal declaration of the election results.
The United States, the former colonial power, and the European Union hailed the overall conduct of the vote, despite outbreaks of deadly violence and some problems with automated ballot-counting machines.
More than 17,000 positions were at stake — from president down to municipal council seats — and candidates included local politicians infamous for using “private armies” to eliminate rivals or intimidate voters.
—Agencies