Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III on Wednesday took his oath of office as the country's 15th president, marking the first peaceful transfer of power in the country in more than a decade.
A sea of yellow-clad supporters witnessed the inauguration of Aquino, the son of democracy icons Corazon Aquino and Benigno Aquino Jr., at the historic Quirino Grandstand in Manila at 12 noon as mandated by the 1987 Constitution.
Aquino took his oath before Supreme Court Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, who also administered the oath of office of Vice President Jejomar Binay earlier.
About two hours earlier, Aquino fetched outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from Malacañang and shared a car with her to Luneta, where she was fetched by a private car and taken to her oath-taking ceremony as representative for Pampanga’s second district.
The last time the Philippines witnessed a peaceful transition between two administrations was in 1998, when President Joseph Estrada took the reins of power with a landslide victory. He was ousted in 2001 over corruption charges and replaced by his then vice president Arroyo, who was proclaimed the winner in the 2004 presidential elections and served for a total of nine years.
Estrada ran again in the May 10 elections, but was edged out by Aquino who won by more than 5.7 million votes over the former president, who came in second.
Estrada and his predecessor, former president Fidel Ramos, were among the dignitaries that graced Aquino’s inauguration along with foreign diplomats and incoming government officials.
Aquino had been serving as senator since 2007 before he was ushered into the presidential race following the death of his mother, former President Corazon Aquino, in August last year. During his campaign, he vowed to eradicate corrupt practices that triggered several scandals during the Arroyo administration.
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