Benigno Aquino, who has an insurmountable lead in unofficial tallies of votes from Monday's national elections, said he hoped to avoid taking the oath of office on June 30 from Renato Corona, a former chief of staff of Arroyo's whom she controversially appointed as the country's next chief justice this week.
The relatively smooth election process and the emergence of a clear winner with market-friendly credentials is seen as a positive development for improving long-term investor perception, although a messy transition period could keep sentiment cautious.
"More than anything, given the fact she probably assumes she'll be facing a whole ton of cases ... she is looking for a sympathetic or friendly faces from those who will handle her case," Aquino said in his home province of Tarlac, where he attended the wake of a party worker killed in election violence.
Asked for his views on why Aquino had appointed a new chief justice before her term ended, he said: "I think for personal interests again rather than national interest."
Aquino has said he will investigate allegations of corruption, electoral fraud and rights abuses against the deeply unpopular Arroyo and her administration.
"It will test Aquino's resolve to undo Arroyo's last-minute deals and appointments and to prosecute Arroyo," Elmer Labog, head of the KMU labor movement, said of the Corona appointment.
Aquino said he thought the appointment of the chief justice would be questioned, and added he hoped his village head would swear him in as president rather than Corona.
"In all probability, I am waiting for my lawyers' opinion, but it will probably be before the barangay (village) captain of Tarlac," Aquino told reporters, saying there was no law requring the chief justice to administer his oath of office.
The government said the appointment was legal, and a refusal to recognise the chief justice might lead to a constitutional crisis. Earlier this week it said an attempt to reverse the appointment would be an impeachable offense.
 

Investors are waiting on Aquino's choices for key economic and finance positions for signals on policy direction, and also watching the final manoeuvres of Arroyo over the next six weeks.
"His victory has some good things going for him, firstly credibility and legitimacy will not be questioned," said Benito Lim, political science professor at Ateneo de Manila University. Aquino may not be officially named president-elect until June. Congress is due to meet from May 31 to validate the election outcome, although it could request Arroyo to hold an earlier session.
While the election commission Comelec has stopped releasing figures, some local media have access to its raw data.
ABS-CBN television said its calculations showed Aquino had 14.01 million votes, or 42 percent of 33.28 million votes counted. Estrada was in second place with 8.86 million votes or 26.6 percent of the vote. Around 5 million votes remain to be counted based on a estimate of 75 percent voter turnout.
Comelec said it could proclaim on Saturday the winners of the 12 Senate seats and 57 lower-house seats reserved for party-list groups which cover sectors such as women, labor and farmers.
Ratings agencies have said a well-received election process and outcome did not change their outlook on the Philippines. More important were efforts to cut a deficit nearing 300 billion pesos ($6.6 billion) and to broaden the tax base.
Philippine markets rallied this week, with the peso reclaiming most of the previous week's losses and stocks surging 6 percent to their highest level since Jan. 2008.
The gains came even though foreign investors have been net sellers since the election - having been net buyers since the second half of March, according to stock exchange data.
The Euro zone rescue package that boosted global sentiment around the world has been a big factor in the gains, but the local stock market has rallied more than regional counterparts including Indonesia this week.