Caricature of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III

15th President of the Republic of the Philippines

June 30, 2010 - present

Benigno Simeon Aquino II was born in Manila on February 8, 1960. The only son of former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. and former President Corazon Aquino. He has four other siblings; Maria Elena, Aurora Corazon, Victoria Eliza and Kristina Bernadette.

Noynoy entered the political scene when he ran for congressman on 1998 and served as the Representative of the 2nd district of Tarlac until 2007. He was elected as Senator in the 2007 national election with more than 14.3 million votes. Noynoy was a member of the Liberal Party from 1998 to present, and served as the party's secretary general and vice-chairman.

When his mother Corazon Aquino passed away on August 1 2009, the people started to urged Noynoy to run for president in the 2010 elections. Noynoy said that he wanted to be enlightened before making a decision so he went the Carmelite Convention in Zamboanga on September 4, 2009 for a few days of spiritual retreat. At a press conference organized by the Liberal Party held in Club Filipino on September 8, 2009, LP President Mar Roxas gave way to Aquino to become the standard bearer of the Party in the presidential election. And on September 9, 2009, Aquino came back after his retreat and made the announcement of his bid for president.

On June 9, 2010, after 9 days of canvassing by the National Board of Canvassers, Noynoy Aquino was officially declared as the winner of the May 2010 presidential election with a total of 15,208,678 votes against former president Joseph Estrada who got 9,487,837 votes.