Senator Benigno Aquino was cruising to victory in the Philippine presidential race yesterday. Fears of an unsuccessful election bid proved unfounded and attention turned to whether he will be able to deliver on his promised economic reforms.
The country’s first automated election ran far better than many had expected — particularly after a technical problem last week — and the quick, clear result removed any fears investors might have had of prolonged instability.
The stock market gained 3.85 percent and the peso rose more than 1 percent as Aquino’s strong lead added to the boost from the euro zone rescue package that lifted global markets and investor sentiment this week.
“A strong mandate will bring policy continuity, which is what people want to see. The last thing they want to see is always uncertainty, as we’ve seen in Britain … popular support hopefully will translate into confidence in the economy,” said Song Seng Wun, regional economist at CIMB Research in Singapore.
Questions remain over whether the 50-year-old senator, who has had a lackluster career as a lawmaker, will be strong enough to press ahead with reforms and tame the deficit, which is expected to top 300 billion pesos (US$6.7 billion) this year.
His anti-corruption platform was founded on the goodwill generated by the family name and its reputation for probity — his father was an opposition leader assassinated during the reign of Ferdinand Marcos. His mother Corazon became president when the People Power revolution ousted Marcos.
Her death in August last year powered an emotion-driven push by her son, known as “Noynoy,” to run for the presidency.
He reiterated that the fiscal position could be improved by better collection of existing taxes and rejected a suggestion by the current finance minister that the rate of consumption tax could be raised.
“Before we start imposing new taxes, we should be collecting the taxes that are already there,” Aquino said.
Many financial analysts believe he may yet have to backtrack and impose tax increases to prevent fiscal crisis.
“Tackling the deficit would be the number one priority for the next government,” said Paul Joseph Garcia, chief investment officer of ING Investment Management Philippines.
The Commission on Elections said Aquino had 40.2 percent of votes with 78.55 percent counted by early yesterday. Former president Joseph Estrada was second with 25.5 percent.
Aquino had 12.3 million votes to Estrada’s 7.8 million, with 30.4 million votes counted. The election commission has said there was a turnout of about 75 percent of 50.7 million registered voters.
Arroyo, who was ineligible to run for president again, won a seat in Congress in the election.
Benigno Aquino said yesterday that while he made no judgment about Arroyo, she should be investigated over a telephone call she allegedly made to an election commissioner during the 2004 presidential polls.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
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