Aquino's presidential landslide confirmed, at last, in Philippines
Source: Agencies |
June 10, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
BENIGNO Aquino III said yesterday a ballooning budget deficit was among huge problems he would inherit when he takes over as the 15th president of the Philippines this month.
Aquino, a 50-year-old bachelor and the only son of the Philippines' revered democracy leader Cory Aquino, secured 15.2 million votes, or 42 percent of ballots cast in May elections, the biggest winning margin since democracy was restored in 1986.
He won by more than 5.7 million votes over his nearest rival, former President Joseph Estrada, in the country's first nationwide automated vote count - a process that seemed to take forever.
Aquino said he wanted to know the deficit his government would inherit. It could be as much as 400 billion pesos (US$8.6 billion), a new peak from last year's 298.5 billion pesos and a record shortfall in peso terms.
Plugging tax leaks and curbing smuggling and corruption would be priorities, he said.
"New taxes will be a last step if we have done everything and the deficit is still unmanageable," Aquino said. "You have to plug the leaks first before you even think of imposing new hardships."
He said "regressive" taxes were an unfair impost on the lower classes.
Aquino said he wanted to widen health insurance to cover all of the population from 38 percent and streamline the judicial process to fast-track court cases.
He will announce cabinet positions as soon as possible.
Political allies and cheering supporters filled the Congress session hall in the capital of Manila, chanting his nickname "Noynoy" as lawmakers officially proclaimed Aquino the next president.
Aquino is also the son of assassinated opposition senator Benigno Aquino Jr.
A spokesman for Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is in Shanghai for the World Expo, said her administration "will do all we can to make the transition to a new administration smooth and orderly."
Aquino, a 50-year-old bachelor and the only son of the Philippines' revered democracy leader Cory Aquino, secured 15.2 million votes, or 42 percent of ballots cast in May elections, the biggest winning margin since democracy was restored in 1986.
He won by more than 5.7 million votes over his nearest rival, former President Joseph Estrada, in the country's first nationwide automated vote count - a process that seemed to take forever.
Aquino said he wanted to know the deficit his government would inherit. It could be as much as 400 billion pesos (US$8.6 billion), a new peak from last year's 298.5 billion pesos and a record shortfall in peso terms.
Plugging tax leaks and curbing smuggling and corruption would be priorities, he said.
"New taxes will be a last step if we have done everything and the deficit is still unmanageable," Aquino said. "You have to plug the leaks first before you even think of imposing new hardships."
He said "regressive" taxes were an unfair impost on the lower classes.
Aquino said he wanted to widen health insurance to cover all of the population from 38 percent and streamline the judicial process to fast-track court cases.
He will announce cabinet positions as soon as possible.
Political allies and cheering supporters filled the Congress session hall in the capital of Manila, chanting his nickname "Noynoy" as lawmakers officially proclaimed Aquino the next president.
Aquino is also the son of assassinated opposition senator Benigno Aquino Jr.
A spokesman for Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is in Shanghai for the World Expo, said her administration "will do all we can to make the transition to a new administration smooth and orderly."
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