How do you regain control of your vehicle's steering when you start to aquaplane?

I was driving along McArthur Highway in Tarlac last night. The road was wet with rain and it was pitch black. Since the road was practically deserted, I was going at around 70 kph. Anyway, I noticed all too late that I was near the bridge at the boundary of Moncada and Paniqui (the dreaded bridge that has a very pronounced up-slope and has metal plates instead of asphalt underneath). I stepped on my brakes to slow down, but instead of decelerating, I felt as if my van was gliding over the surface of the road. It scared the heck out of me! Rather than risk having the van go into an uncontrolled spin, I released the brake pedal, downshifted, and just endured the slightly nasty sensation of going over the humps before the bridge at about 40 kph.

Anyway, I came out of that one all right. I was wondering though if there are other safer techniques to deal with aquaplaning. Any suggestions?

And yes, I have tires with a safe margin of tread depth left, in case anyone was wondering.