Faith leaders in the Philippines and abroad have wasted no time in pressing new President Benigno Aquino III to keep morality high on his list of leadership objectives.

Aquino was sworn in on Wednesday as the Philippine's 15th president after winning a landslide election in May.

"We pray that the new government will ensure a genuine transition of the impoverished to a more human existence," said Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales said in a mass celebrating Aquino's victory, according to ucanews.com

"We must now follow up whether [elected officials] are honestly serving the common good," Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) added.

The CBCP has went so far as to outline a 13-point agenda for Aquino, reminiscent of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's 10-point agenda.

The largest issue for Aquino, according to the CBCP, is the implementation of land reform through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program with extension and reform (CARPer).

Farmable land in the Philippines is almost entirely possessed by the country's wealthiest echelon, of whom Aquino is a part of.

Aquino is the son of former President Corazon Aquino, his mother, and her husband, former Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., who was assassinated in 1983 while returning to the Philippines after several years in exile.

A monument of the elder Aquino stands near the Philippine Stock Exchange building.

Attempts at achieving more equal land distribution in the country have been made for nearly 40 years.

The bishops further demanded that Aquino reject the country's controversial reproductive health bill, same sex unions, abortion, divorce, euthanasia, and contraceptives.

"The CBCP insists 13-point advocacies as guidance to President Benigno Simeon Aquino III when he assumes office for moral and social transformation of the country especially the poor," said former Manila auxiliary bishop Teodoro Bacani Jr. in a statement.

In Wednesday's inauguration speech, Aquino vowed that he would tackle poverty and fight corruption – an issue that many have criticized former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for ignoring.

The new president has already made strides in establishing a truth commission to investigate abuses that occurred under Arroyo's regime, which include killings of 6 church laymen earlier this month.

Human rights group Karapatan, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, the Episcopal Church in the United States, and the World Council of Churches (WCC) have supported Aquino's efforts.

"We strongly urge [Aquino] to make good to the promise he made recently to prosecute the crimes of the past administration; human rights violations like killings and enforced disappearances are grave crimes against humanity that must be prosecuted," said Karapatan chairperson Marie Hilao-Enriquez.

The WCC "urge[s] the Philippines government to keep its commitment to international human rights instruments and put an end to the killings and to the culture of impunity by prosecuting the perpetrators and granting justice to the victims of human rights violations committed in the country," said WCC General Secretary the Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit.

Aquino has currently named retired chief justice Hilario Davide to head the commission.