Former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was Friday arrested for electoral fraud, which carries a life sentence, preventing her departure from the country to seek medical treatment. President Benigno Aquino and his government have long accused Arroyo of corruption during her two terms in office, from 2001-10, though until Friday, authorities had not formally charged her. “She is now under our control, under our custody,” Senior Superintendent Franklin Bucayu, head of the Southern Police District, told a news briefing outside St. Luke's Hospital where Arroyo was getting treatment. The arrest warrant had been issued earlier in the day, just after the government lost a bid to reverse a Supreme Court ruling allowing Arroyo to travel abroad. Arroyo denies any wrongdoing. Police said Arroyo's family, her lawyers and some members of her cabinet were at her side in the hospital when the warrant was served. Her photograph would be taken and booking done over the weekend. “We posted two police officers outside her room and there are more officers down here to protect,” Bucayu said, adding the former president was wearing a neck brace when the warrant was served. “She just nodded and did not say any word.” Both military and police leaders promised to maintain law and order, dismissing rumors of unrest within their ranks. The government had stopped Arroyo at Manila airport believing she was trying to avoid investigation and possible prosecution. The Supreme Court had reaffirmed a decision to lift the travel ban Friday, which could have allowed Arroyo and her husband to take a planned afternoon flight to Singapore, but that was subsequently overridden by the warrant. Arroyo also faces allegations of fraud over a 2004 presidential election and corruption in her administration. The alleged vote rigging happened in the restive southern Muslim province of Maguindanao, where all 12 pro-Arroyo senate candidates won a clean sweep of the province at mid-term elections in 2007, at odds with national trends. “After finding the existence of probable cause, the court issued a warrant of arrest against the accused,” a clerk of Pasay City Regional Trial Court told reporters.
