Lawyer’s outrage at Arroyo mugshots

MANILA, Philippines—A lawyer for Representative Gloria Arroyo expressed outrage on Tuesday that police mugshots taken of the former president in hospital after she was arrested were leaked to the media.

The photos, splashed across the Philippine Daily Inquirer, were supposedly those taken Saturday at the St. Luke’s Hospital, a day after the 64-year-old was charged and arrested with conspiring to rig the 2007 senatorial election.

The three photos show a tired-looking Arroyo, who says she is suffering from a life-threatening bone disease, wearing a bulky neck brace and head strap with her unbrushed black hair showing flecks of grey.

“The former president does not deserve this and neither should an ordinary person be subjected to this because everyone is entitled to a presumption of innocence,” one of Arroyo’s lawyers, Ferdinand Topacio, said on GMA television.

“Every person should be treated with dignity, be they former presidents or ordinary laborers. Our judicial system is supposed to operate on that principle.”

Although court officials and the government said the mugshots would not be released to the media, they appeared on the front page of one of the Inquirer on Tuesday.

They also appeared on the www.mugshots.com website and started to quickly be shared around social media sites such as Facebook.

Court officials and local police who were meant to be in charge of the photos denied Tuesday on local television that they had leaked them.

Arroyo, who served as president from 2001 until the middle of last year, could face life in jail if she is found guilty of conspiring to rig the elections.

Her successor, President Benigno Aquino, has also vowed to charge her for a wide range of other corrupt acts she allegedly committed while she was in power.

Aquino won the presidential elections last year in a landslide after promising to stamp out corruption that is rampant across all sectors of Philippine society.

He has made pursuing Arroyo the top priority of his anti-graft campaign.

Arroyo has denied all the allegations and her lawyers have filed a petition with Supreme Court for the charge of rigging the 2007 senatorial election to be thrown out.