An accused mass murderer currently detained in a maximum security cell in Manila set off the chain of events which led to Friday's arrest of ex-Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Zaldy Ampatuan - suspected of organising and participating in the massacre of 58 people, including 34 journalists, in Maguindanao, southern Philippines in 2009 - had been in jail for two years awaiting arraignment. Suddenly, in July, he gave an interview where he said Arroyo had cheated in the 2007 elections.
Arroyo's critics had long voiced suspicions she had manipulated elections. In fact, Ampatuan asserted, he and his warlord family had been ordered by the president to rig the vote. Ampatuan claimed that the cheating in Maguindanao helped Arroyo candidate Juan Miguel Zubiri win a seat in the national Senate.
His interview probably would not have received serious attention if another witness being sought by authorities hadn't immediately surfaced and confirmed the story. According to Lintang Bedol, election supervisor for the southern province of Sultan Kudarat, there had been cheating for Arroyo's senatorial candidates in the 2004 and 2007 elections.
Initially the Arroyo camp scoffed, calling the claims self-serving. According to the ex-president's spokesman, Raul Lambino: 'They are trying to save their own skin.'
However, a recount by the Senate Election Tribunal indicated that there had been cheating in Zubiri's favour. Before it could issue its report, Zubiri abruptly quit in August, tearfully claiming in a farewell speech that if he had won because of cheating he didn't know about it.
The candidate whose votes had been stolen, Aquilino Pimentel III, assumed Zubiri's vacated seat and vowed to go after the 'mastermind' of the poll fraud. He had long accused two provincial election officials, Lilian Radam and Yogie Martirizar, of poll fraud. After Zubiri resigned the two suddenly said they wanted to become state witnesses.