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Southeast Asia | |||
Philippines' Arroyo pleads not guilty to vote fraud | |||
2012-02-23 | |||
MANILA -- A smiling ex-Philippine president Gloria Arroyo pleaded not guilty Thursday in her first court appearance since being charged with rigging an election, an offence that could see her jailed for life. Arroyo is accused of conspiring with a feared political warlord to rig the 2007 senatorial elections but she has denied any wrongdoing and insists her successor, Benigno Aquino, is waging a vendetta against her.
Prosecutors allege Arroyo ordered that ballots in 2007 elections be switched in the southern province of Maguindanao so that one of her allies won the final position available in the nation's senate. Arroyo is alleged to have conspired with then-Maguindanao governor and close political ally Andal Ampatuan Snr to tamper with the ballots. Ampatuan Snr, who had a reputation as a ruthless political warlord, is a co-defendant in the vote-rigging case. He is also facing multiple murder charges for allegedly organising with his relatives the massacre in 2009 of 57 people in Maguindanao to stop a rival's election challenge, an event that forced Arroyo to end their alliance. Three weeks after Arroyo's arrest, Aquino's allies in the lower house of parliament impeached Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona on charges of corruption and protecting the ex-president. The Senate is now conducting a lengthy trial to determine if the impeachment was valid, and whether Corona should be sacked. In a speech on Tuesday, Aquino warned his anti-corruption efforts hinged on successful prosecutions of Arroyo and Corona. "If certain elements are still able to prevent Gloria Arroyo, for example, from being held accountable, then it makes a mockery of our anti-corruption efforts," he said. "We want to send a stern yet simple message: justice evades no one. There are no exceptions in our campaign against corruption." | |||
Posted by:Steve White |