Moro Islamic Liberation Front negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, however, said his group would reserve its expectations on the prospects of a peace accord under a new Aquino administration, recalling that talks initially went well under his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but then collapsed.

“Aquino's victory was untainted by allegations of vote-rigging unlike Arroyo's,” Iqbal said. Arroyo stormy rule ends on June 30.

“He has more moral authority as a president and that will add to his clout,” Iqbal told the Associated Press.

The long battle for minority Muslim self-rule in the southern Philippines by the Moro rebels, the largest guerrilla group with an estimated 11,000 fighters, will be one of Aquino's major security headaches.

Two smaller groups, including the Abu Sayyaf, also have waged bloody insurrections in the south.

New People's Army rebels have been fighting a rural-based Marxist uprising that has killed more than 120,000 people since the late 1960s.

Aquino, who is headed to a landslide victory based on an almost-complete count of the May 10 elections, can rule with more stability, which can help him defend possible accords with Muslim fighters, Iqbal said.

Although several agreements were signed under Arroyo, her administration failed to clinch a preliminary peace pact after it was opposed by Christian politicians in 2008. The Supreme Court declared the pact unconstitutional, sparking fierce fighting that killed hundreds and displaced about 750,000 people. A cease-fire has taken hold since then.

Although some of Aquino's political allies were among those who opposed the pact, his parents — who are pro-democracy icons in the Philippines — have no history of anti-Muslim bias, Iqbal said.

Aquino, however, has to overcome great pressure from interest groups, including Christian politicians and business people, to push an accord that would grant territory to minority Muslims and allow them to govern themselves, Iqbal said.

“Arroyo failed to bring the revolution to an end,” Iqbal said. “Whether the next one can do it, it's very difficult to tell.”