Arroyo gets bail in poll fraud case
Source: Agencies |
July 26, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FORMER Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a key target in the government's anti-corruption fight, was granted bail on election fraud charges yesterday and walked out of an army hospital where she had been detained since December.
But Arroyo could soon be back in detention with government lawyers seeking another arrest warrant from the anti-graft court, Sandiganbayan, over plunder charges involving the misuse of state lottery funds, a non-bailable criminal offence.
Arroyo is also facing a graft charge over an aborted US$329 million national broadband deal with China's ZTE Corp in 2007. She denies all the charges.
Arroyo's corruption trial is central to President Benigno Aquino's pledge to tackle endemic graft that threatens to take the shine away from an economic revival and investment rebound in the Philippines.
"The fight against corruption continues," Aquino's spokesman Edwin Lacierda said after Arroyo was granted a 1 million pesos (US$23,800) bail. "This will not dampen our resolve to file and continue to institute corruption cases against responsible officials."
The Philippine's anti-graft court on Tuesday issued a travel ban, the third such order that will prevent Arroyo leaving the country for treatment for a spinal problem.
The 65-year-old Arroyo, president from 2001 to 2010, walked out the hospital wearing a neck brace and gray dress, and was driven home in a white van. Television footage briefly showed her smiling and waving to supporters as her convoy made its way to her house.
A regional trial court granted her bail in the electoral fraud case because it found the evidence against her to be weak.
"We thank God and all the people who are praying for her," the former leader's daughter Luli Arroyo-Bernas said.
But Arroyo could soon be back in detention with government lawyers seeking another arrest warrant from the anti-graft court, Sandiganbayan, over plunder charges involving the misuse of state lottery funds, a non-bailable criminal offence.
Arroyo is also facing a graft charge over an aborted US$329 million national broadband deal with China's ZTE Corp in 2007. She denies all the charges.
Arroyo's corruption trial is central to President Benigno Aquino's pledge to tackle endemic graft that threatens to take the shine away from an economic revival and investment rebound in the Philippines.
"The fight against corruption continues," Aquino's spokesman Edwin Lacierda said after Arroyo was granted a 1 million pesos (US$23,800) bail. "This will not dampen our resolve to file and continue to institute corruption cases against responsible officials."
The Philippine's anti-graft court on Tuesday issued a travel ban, the third such order that will prevent Arroyo leaving the country for treatment for a spinal problem.
The 65-year-old Arroyo, president from 2001 to 2010, walked out the hospital wearing a neck brace and gray dress, and was driven home in a white van. Television footage briefly showed her smiling and waving to supporters as her convoy made its way to her house.
A regional trial court granted her bail in the electoral fraud case because it found the evidence against her to be weak.
"We thank God and all the people who are praying for her," the former leader's daughter Luli Arroyo-Bernas said.
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