PHILIPPINES

a spokesman for newly-installed Philippines president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said that Philippines leader Joseph Estrada faces the death penalty on corruption charges. Macapagal-Arroyo, 53, was sworn in after the Supreme Court stripped her predecessor Joseph Estrada of office following announcements by the military, the police and most of the Cabinet that they could not serve under him and a 75,000-strong mob converged on his residence. One of the charges involved his alleged diversion of 130 million pesos ($A4.71 million) in government funds. Death row: there are 1070 people in death row: 6 are juveniles, 13 are 65 and over; 13 are foreign nationals. Since the death penalty was reimposed the Supreme Court reviewed 323 capital cases involving 390 death convicts. From 1995 to 1999 the Court accelerated its review of capital cases. In 1999, the Court reviewed 142 cases more than double the number of cases it reviewed the previous years. However, for the first eleven months of the year 2000, the Court was unable to match the number of cases it reviewed the prior year. As of 7 December 2000, the Court reviewed 127 capital cases, 15 cases less than it had reviewed the year before. In 2000, 7 were acquitted, 31 affirmed, 84 had sentence modified, 16 remanded.