MANILA — Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said Friday he had picked Interior Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas II as the administration candidate to succeed him in elections next year. Aquino made the announcement in the same meeting hall where Roxas declared six years ago that he was shelving his own presidential ambitions to give way to the son of the late democracy icon Corazon Aquino. The 58-year-old former congressman and senator said 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 promised to continue on the "straight path," Aquino's program to fight poverty and corruption. Aquino said he picked Roxas because "he has the competence, he has no other boss except the people, who owes no one a debt of gratitude, who has no interest except the nation's." — AP
