Benigno Aquino: Average man, sensational story

WITH a bullet in his neck, national heroes for parents and a much-talked about bachelor status, Benigno Aquino is not your run-of-the-mill presidential candidate.

But in the personality-charged atmosphere of Philippines politics, the man affectionately known as "Noynoy" has quickly become a star and a leading contender in next year's elections.

Many of the unassuming 49-year-old senator's credentials come from his famous parents.

His mother, Corazon, who died last month, is virtually worshipped throughout the Southeast Asian nation for leading the "people power" revolution that overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

His father, also named Benigno, was murdered by Marcos gunmen as he tried to return from exile in 1983 to lead the opposition, becoming a political martyr who remains much loved today.

"It is in his bloodline. It is in his heritage," trumpets the aspiring president's recently released official biography.

Nevertheless, Aquino said he had no intention of running for president until he witnessed the immense public outpouring of affection for his family after his mother died of cancer.

Before his mother's death, the bespectacled, balding Aquino was best known as a low-profile politician with no major legislative achievements after nine years in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate.

He was better known as the former boyfriend of a broadcast journalist, Korina Sanchez, and the brother of popular TV celebrity Kris Aquino.

Aquino even admits he used to let his mother pick his wardrobe for him, while much gossip centres on whether he will finally end his bachelorhood and marry if he is voted in as president.

Born to one of the wealthiest and most high-profile of the landed political clans that rule the Philippines, "Noynoy" was named after his grandfather, a former speaker of the House of Representatives.

After an education at an exclusive Catholic university run by Jesuits, the economics graduate spent the next 17 years working part-time for his mother and as a volunteer outreach worker for impoverished communities.

The bullet in his neck stems from the tumultuous days when his mother ruled the country after Marcos.

As he drove back to the presidential palace in 1987 during one of the many bloody coup attempts against his mother, right-wing soldiers tried to kill him in an ambush.

A grenade blast killed three of his four bodyguards. He was also hit with five bullets, and one of the slugs is still embedded in his neck.

Aquino won a seat in the nation's lower house of parliament in 1998, serving three terms during which his Liberal Party broke ties with President Gloria Arroyo in 2005 over allegations that she stole the 2004 election.

Aquino joined the Senate in 2007 and, although he has achieved little politically, he is seen by many in the Philippines as being untarnished by the corruption that pervades domestic politics. AFP