Aquino pledges to fight corruption in Philippines

Benigno Aquino III, left, the son of two democracy heroes, vowed to deliver on his promise to tackle corruption when he was sworn in as the Philippines' 15th President yesterday.

He said he would fight poverty, improve the investment climate and try to resolve a long-running Muslim separatist insurgency in the south of the poor, mainly Catholic nation.

"My parents sought nothing less, and died for nothing less, than democracy," he told a crowd estimated at about half a million people.