Philippines issues arrest warrant for Gloria Arroyo

Manila: A Philippine court has issued an arrest warrant for former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on electoral fraud charges to prevent any chance of her turning fugitive.

Arroyo denies wrongdoing and accuses the government of violating her rights by stopping her from leaving the Philippines for medical treatment abroad.

The Supreme Court earlier Friday upheld her right to travel but a lower court later issued a warrant of arrest that effectively bars her from leaving.

Arroyo was recovering in the hospital since her failed attempt to leave the country Tuesday, and it was doubtful she would be immediately hauled to jail given her medical condition.

If convicted of charges of rigging an election, the offence could lead to the ailing 64-year-old spending the rest of her life in jail.

Tumultuous week

The charges filed by the Commission on Elections capped a tumultuous week in Philippine politics that had seen Arroyo try to leave the country claiming to need urgent medical care, but the government stopped her at Manila airport.

"We just received the findings of the investigation and we saw it was enough for charges, so we filed the case," election commission spokesman James Jimenez said on the GMA television network.

No bail

He said defendants charged with electoral sabotage cannot post bail and must be detained during the trial.

Arroyo had remained in hospital on Friday for what she has said is a rare bone disease that requires urgent specialist care overseas.

The election commission said Arroyo, who was president from 2001 to 2010, had ordered the wide-scale tampering of ballots in the 2007 senatorial elections that cheated an opposition candidate out of victory.

Maguindanao ballots 'fiddled with'

It said the ballots that had been fiddled with were in the southern province of Maguindanao, which was then ruled by the Ampatuan family.

The Ampatuans were at the time close allies of Arroyo and had a reputation in Philippine politics as a warlord family that ruled the province with its own private army.

She was forced to eventually sever ties with the Ampatuans after the family was accused of orchestrating the massacre of 57 people in 2009 to eliminate a rival's political challenge in Maguindanao.

The government filed charges against Arroyo at a lower court just as the Supreme Court, the country's highest, held a special hearing to deal with the political stand-off sparked by the travel ban on Arroyo.

Arroyo's lawyer, Raul Lambino, denounced the filing of the charges as another desperate effort to prevent her leaving the country.

"They are doing everything to stop her," he said. "They are violating the basic rule of due process. It is clear this (decision) was railroaded (forced through) from the start."

Arroyo had arrived at Manila airport on Tuesday night in a wheelchair and wearing a neck brace, seeking to fly to Singapore, hours after the Supreme Court overturned the government's initial travel ban on her.

Court granted her the right to travel

The Supreme Court had earlier ruled that she should be allowed to travel because she had not at that point been charged with any crimes and was entitled to a presumption of innocence.

But in a high-stakes political standoff, the government defied the Supreme Court and ordered immigration authorities to stop her from leaving the country, while racing to file charges against her.

Before the charges were laid, Arroyo's aides had said she would again attempt to leave the country on Friday.

Aquilino Pimentel III

The politician allegedly cheated out of a win Aquilino Pimentel III, who was this year proclaimed as the 12th winner of the 12 seats at stake in the mid-term balloting.

The previous candidate declared as the winner, Juan Miguel Zubiri, resigned from his seat once it became apparent the election body would proclaim his rival Pimentel as the true winner.