Updated

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III has chosen Interior Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas II as the administration candidate to succeed him in elections next year.

Aquino made the announcement Friday in the same meeting hall where Roxas declared six years ago that he was shelving his own presidential ambition to give way to the son of the late democracy icon Corazon Aquino.

The 58-year-old former legislator says he was honored to be endorsed by Aquino as the standard bearer of the dominant Liberal Party.

The grandson and namesake of the Philippines' first post-World War II president promises to continue on the "straight path," Aquino's program to fight poverty and corruption in this Southeast Asian nation of 100 million.

Roxas lost as Aquino's running mate in the 2010 vice presidential race.