MANILA—Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Friday endorsed fellow Liberal Party heavyweight Manuel Roxas as his favored candidate for next year’s presidential election, ending months of speculation.

The term-limited Mr. Aquino billed Mr. Roxas as the continuity candidate in the May 2016 poll, backing him as the right person to carry forward the anticorruption agenda of his own administration, which is widely credited with having restored the Philippines’ economic credibility.

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