He is the only son of late former president Corazon Aquino and her assassinated husband Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, both revered for leading the struggle to restore democracy in the archipelago of over 90 million people.
The frontrunner himself was nearly killed when he was shot in a bloody right-wing coup attempt in 1987 against his mother. It was one of a number of traumatic events that shaped his life before he decided he too wanted to be president.
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However, the bespectacled Aquino was a latecomer to the presidential race, declaring his candidacy only after his mother's death from cancer last August plunged the country into mourning and demonstrated the power of the family name.
He made fighting corruption his mantra, capitalizing on his landowning family's clean reputation, and has vowed to reduce the poverty afflicting a third of the population.
"Corruption is the single biggest threat to our democracy," Aquino, who has an economics degree, has said on his official blog.
Aquino was long mocked by opponents as a fortunately surnamed underachiever with no administrative or business experience and little to show for 12 years as a congressman and senator.
But although overshadowed by his parents, the chain-smoking Aquino blossomed during the campaign into a confident public speaker.
His official biography describes him as "an audiophile, history buff, marksman, and self-taught billiards sharpie."
Such flecks of color help flesh out an otherwise grey persona, in addition to which he has a bullet lodged in his neck—one of five that struck him when rebel soldiers attacked the presidential palace in 1987 in a coup attempt against his mother that killed three of his bodyguards.
It wasn't Aquino's first brush with political violence.
He was 23 when his father was gunned down by military escorts at Manila airport as he returned from US exile to challenge Ferdinand Marcos in 1983.
The event shocked the world and ignited the non-violent "People Power" movement that toppled Marcos and his wife Imelda and installed the martyred politician's widow Corazon as president three years later.
The murder scene was renamed the Ninoy Aquino International Airport after Marcos was forced into exile in Hawaii, where he died in 1989.
Aquino earned a bachelor of economics degree in 1981 from the elite Ateneo de Manila University, where one of his professors would later become President Gloria Arroyo.
If elected, Aquino will become the Philippines' first bachelor leader but there is speculation about a presidential palace wedding in this former US colony where the First Lady traditionally has a high public profile.
He appeared on stage at his final election campaign rally with his girlfriend, Shalani Soledad, 30, a publicity-shy town councilor in a Manila suburb.
Aquino has four married sisters including hugely popular television host and actress Kris, 39, who played a starring role in the campaign.
First Posted 10:32:00 05/09/2010
By Roberto Coloma
Agence France-Presse
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