Philippines - Philippines' Arroyo charged with vote tampering

MANILA; Former Philippine president Gloria Arroyo was charged in court Friday with large-scale vote tampering, the official watchdog Commission on Elections said.

"Yes, we are going to file a case of electoral sabotage against her," the commission's spokesman James Jimenez told AFP, adding that the maximum penalty for the crime was life imprisonment.

The body said Arroyo, who was president between 2001 and 2010, was accused of ordering the wide-scale tampering of official returns in the 2007 senatorial elections that cheated an opposition candidate out of victory.

Arroyo, who says she needs medical treatment abroad, was stopped from boarding a flight at Manila airport on Tuesday despite a Supreme Court ruling that she was free to travel.

The government said it wanted to stop Arroyo from fleeing prosecution.

- AFP/ck


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