Benigno S Aquino III’s proclamation as President-elect on June 9, following a relatively easy victory in the Philippines elections, came after nine-and-a-half years in which the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was dogged with allegations of corruption and vote-rigging.
Mr Aquino, popularly known as Noynoy and the son of former president Corazon Aquino, got 15,208,678 votes, although as there were eight other candidates he will still be a minority President. Second, with 9,487,837 votes, was former President Joseph Estrada, replaced by Mrs Arroyo in a coup in 2001.
Opponents say that Mr Aquino’s parentage is his only qualification.
Manuel Roxas II, grandson of the president elected in 1946 and the Liberals’ first choice for presidential candidate, was persuaded to occupy the Vice-Presidential slot, where he lost by 727,000 votes to Jejomar Binay, the Mayor of Makati City and Mr Estrada’s running-mate. Mr Roxas is considering challenging the result on the basis that valid Vice-Presidential votes on the 2.6 million ballot papers declared null and void should have been counted.
Mr Estrada’s achievement surprised many. Although a convicted plunderer, pardoned by Mrs Arroyo, he overtook the phenomenally rich Senator Manuel Villar who, after controversies concerning questionable land deals and the veracity of his claimed humble origins, ended a poor third.
Coming from nowhere (polls had him on 2 per cent at the start of the campaign), Mr Binay’s astonishing achievement is being credited to the links he forged with mayors throughout the country, popularising his achievements in Makati, where he built the closest thing to a welfare state the Philippines has ever seen.
If Mr Aquino, whose family owns the massive Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province, disappoints the masses after he is sworn in on June 30, it is likely that Mr Binay will emerge as their champion.
