MANILA: Former Philippine president Gloria Arroyo on Wednesday personally responded to the first of many corruption complaints being readied against her, saying there was no sign she was guilty. Arroyo, who stepped down in June amid widespread allegations of graft, filed a counter-affidavit at the Justice Department, replying to a subpoena from prosecutors looking into an accusation against her. “By the allegations of the complaint, I am not even alleged to have amassed, accumulated or acquired any wealth, and particularly, ill-gotten wealth,” Arroyo said in her counter-affidavit. The black-dressed Arroyo smiled to reporters but declined to comment, referring all questions to her lawyer. The complaint filed by a tax informant accuses Arroyo and several officials of depriving the government of taxes from the 1.2-billion-peso ($27.3m) sale of a government lot to a private developer in 2007. This was the first time Arroyo has faced such a complaint since she lost her legal immunity after stepping down as president. However she is now a congresswoman and still wields considerable political influence. President Benigno Aquino, who succeeded Arroyo after winning the May elections by a landslide, has set up a “truth commission” to investigate her alleged crimes in preparation for possible charges. Arroyo, who was president for nine years, was dogged by allegations of widespread corruption and of cheating to win the 2004 election. Philippine massacre victims ‘begged for mercy' A witness at the trial of the Philippines' worst political massacre told the court Wednesday that the victims begged for mercy as they were beaten before being taken away to be shot. Farmer Nuruddin Mauyag told the court he was standing nearby when defendant Andal Ampatuan Jnr and his men blocked the victims' convoy and made them lie on the ground while their mobile phones were taken away. “They were hit with the butt of firearms, the armed men punched them, kicked them, punched them on the back of the head, slapped them,” Mauyag, 35, who lives near the site of the massacre in the southern province of Maguindanao, testified. “They (victims) were crying and some women said ‘why are you doing this to us, we are media,'” he said. Ampatuan, a member of a Muslim political clan that had ruled Maguindanao for a decade, is accused of planning and taking part in the November 23, 2009 massacre of 57 people. The clan is accused of abducting the victims, including relatives of a political rival and 30 journalists, and murdering them to stop a challenge to their rule over the province in the May 2010 elections. Ampatuan's father and namesake, three brothers and an uncle, as well as police officers and the clan's bodyguards are among 196 people accused in the crime. At least 120 of the suspects remain at large, according to human rights monitors. Mauyag said Ampatuan grabbed a tall Muslim woman at the checkpoint, later identified by prosecutors as Genalyn Mangudadatu, wife of his rival for the Maguindanao provincial governor's post, Esmael Mangudadatu. When she protested Ampatuan fired on the ground between her legs, the witness said. – Agence France
