Sic transit Gloria

The inauguration of Benigno Noynoy Aquino as the Philippines new president on June 30th looked less like a ceremony of state...

The inauguration of Benigno Noynoy Aquino as the Philippines new president on June 30th looked less like a ceremony of state than the climax of a revolution. Huge crowds,many of them dressed in yellow,chanting Noynoy! Noynoy!,packed Manilas main park to hear Mr Aquino take his oath. It recalled the people-power revolution of 1986 when Mr Aquinos mother,Corazon Cory Aquino,became president with the help of yellow-clad crowds,chanting Cory! Cory!

Filipinos revered Mrs Aquino because she toppled a corrupt dictator,Ferdinand Marcos,and restored democracy. The assassination of her husband,Benigno Ninoy Aquino,Marcoss chief opponent,led eventually to the dictators downfall. My parents sought nothing less and died for nothing less than democracy,peace and prosperity, said Mr Aquino in an inauguration speech frequently punctuated by cheers and applause from the crowd. Mrs Aquinos death last year let loose a wave of nostalgic popular sentiment which swept her son an otherwise unremarkable senator to victory in the presidential election held in May.

The echoes of 1986 were intentional. Mr Aquino has portrayed himself as the deliverer of the Philippines from what he regards as the corrupt regime of the outgoing president,Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The two are pictured above,shaking hands. If theres no corruption,theres no poverty, was his campaign slogan. In his inauguration speech,Mr Aquino promised the end of a leadership that has long been insensitive to the suffering of the people.

The similarities,however,were superficial. Unlike his mother,Mr Aquino was elected in an indisputable election,and he took office in an orderly handover of power,all according to the constitution.

Mrs Arroyo was no dictator,although many of her opponents said she would have liked to have been one. Her administration was,however,beset by accusations,which she denies,of corruption not least that she won the 2004 presidential election by cheating.

Just as his mother set up a commission to try to recoup the fabulous fortune amassed by Mr Marcos,Mr Aquino is setting up a truth commission to investigate corruption during Mrs Arroyos nine years in office. The precedent of his mothers commission is not encouraging,but he expects results,stridently warning those who are talking about reconciliation that past corruption cannot simply be forgotten,because there can be no reconciliation without justice.

Mr Aquinos mother also failed to solve the many other problems that bedevil the country. They include,in the economy,sluggish growth,widespread poverty and rapid population growth. The political culture remains fractious and often violent. Communist and Muslim separatist insurgencies persist,and the security forces are often abusive and sometimes mutinous.

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Solutions to these problems also eluded Mrs Arroyo. Now Mr Aquino has six years in office to confront them. However,despite the pseudo-revolutionary fervour of his inauguration,he has come up with little,in his speech then or elsewhere,that smacks of revolutionary solutions.

Filipinos have been disappointed before. Mrs Arroyo first took power in 2001 in a genuine people-power uprising,that succeeded in booting out another prodigiously corrupt president,Joseph Estrada. And yet the opinion polls suggest that Mrs Arroyo went on to become the most unpopular president since Marcos.