MANILA - Benigno Aquino III, the son of two democracy heroes, told hundreds of thousands of people that he would keep his promise to tackle corruption when he was sworn in as the Philippines' 15th president yesterday.

Aquino said he would fight poverty, improve the economy and seek a just resolution to 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, peace and prosperity," he told an adoring crowd estimated at about half a million people.

Many people were dressed in yellow, the colour of the 1986 People Power revolution that drove dictator Ferdinand Marcos from office and swept Aquino's mother, Corazon, to power.

"I was here 24 years ago for his mother's political rally and I came to see Noynoy take his oath because I want him to succeed," said Sonia de la Cruz, 60, using Aquino's nickname. - Reuters