World

Aquino chooses Roxas as candidate for Philippine presidential election in 2016

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Interior Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas II gives his acceptance speech shortly after Philippine President Benigno Aquino III endorsed him as the administration's standard bearer for the May 2016 presidential elections, Friday, July 31, 2015 at the historic Club Filipino in suburban San Juan, east of Manila, Philippines. The 58-year-old former congressman and senator said he was honored to be endorsed by Aquino of the dominant Liberal Party. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) (The Associated Press)

Interior Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas II, right, chats with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III shortly after Aquino endorsed him as the administration's standard bearer for the May 2016 presidential elections, Friday, July 31, 2015 at the historic Club Filipino in suburban San Juan, east of Manila, Philippines. The 58-year-old former congressman and senator said he was honored to be endorsed by Aquino of the dominant Liberal Party. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) (The Associated Press)

Confetti rain on Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, left, and Interior Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas II as Aquino endorses Roxas as the administration's standard bearer for the May 2016 presidential elections, Friday, July 31, 2015 at the historic Club Filipino in suburban San Juan, east of Manila, Philippines. The 58-year-old former congressman and senator said he was honored to be endorsed by Aquino of the dominant Liberal Party. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) (The Associated Press)

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.