Manila Former president Gloria Arroyo has pleaded not guilty to allegations of graft in a botched broadband deal of the government which was supposed to be funded by China's overseas development assistance, and implemented by a private Chinese company.
The anti-graft court was heavily guarded when Arroyo arrived from the Veterans Memorial Medical Centre where she has been under hospital arrest since earlier this year.
Arroyo's husband Jose Miguel also pleaded not guilty to charges of influencing the $329 million (Dh1.2 billion) broadband project.
Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos, a co-accused, also entered a not guilty plea.
Further charges
Former secretary of the department of transportation and telecommunications, Leandero Mendoza, Arroyo's co-accused, was not arraigned because he suffered a stroke in March.
The three were charged with one count of graft. Arroyo was also charged with two further counts of graft for pushing the project despite knowing that her husband and cabinet members were using Chinese contractors from China's ZTE Corporation, who were involved in the project.
Due to pressures from a Senate inquiry, Arroyo scrapped the project in 2007. It was the first time that she and her husband were co-accused in one graft case.
Arroyo is also facing charges of alleged electoral fraud in the congressional elections in 2007.
