President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's corruption-tainted husband left yesterday for self-imposed exile in the US as part of the embattled leader's efforts to distance herself from political scandals that threaten her government.
Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, a lawyer from a prominent family who has been accused of influence-peddling and receiving kickbacks from illegal gambling, bid a somber farewell to his daughter, son and granddaughter at Manila's airport before boarding a flight to Hong Kong, from where he was to fly to his final destination in the US.
"He is sad," his lawyer, Jesus Santos, said. "He wants to leave so that the president can do her work. He feels bad. He is saddened by reports that are erroneous."
Santos stressed that Arroyo's husband was leaving "on his [own] volition."
The president said earlier that her husband volunteered to leave the Philippines and she was making a personal sacrifice to show her commitment to the nation.
He is not facing any charges and has denied taking gambling payoffs -- the subject of a congressional inquiry. The president's son and brother-in-law also are accused of receiving payoffs at a time when Arroyo is facing allegations of electoral fraud.
She has admitted talking to an election official during the bitterly contested ballot in May last year, but denied influencing the outcome.
Meanwhile, the Philippine election commissioner said he did not conspire with the president to rig the presidential election, a newspaper reported yesterday.
But with the country consumed by "Gloriagate," military intelligence officials were asked yesterday to testify at a House of Representatives inquiry into a taped conversation between Arroyo and Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.
The commissioner said he talked to opposition politicians as well as Arroyo as ballots were being coun-ted in the election that the president won by more than 1 million votes.
Recordings of that conversation produced by Arroyo's rivals to bolster their claims of election cheating had been edited, Garcillano said.
"Tell the people that the conversations that have publicly come out of the tapes are untrue. Many of the conversations were doctored," he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a telephone interview.
Weeks of political turmoil, combined with a Supreme Court freeze on Friday on one of Arroyo's key economic reforms, have put a cloud over Philippine financial markets. Traders said the central bank has been defending the peso in recent days.
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