The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Manila

The chief legal officer of the Philippines' elections commission has been shot and killed outside a hotel in Manila, a report said Sunday.

Alioden Dalaig, 64, was found slumped on the ground with a gunshot wound in the chest Saturday evening and was already dead by the time he was taken to hospital, the Philippine Star reported.

As chief of the Commission on Elections' legal department, Dalaig investigated allegations of cheating by candidates. Police said the motive for the attack was still unknown, but said it may be connected to this work.

Dalaig was a close ally of disgraced elections official Virgilio Garcillano, who allegedly helped rig the May 2004 presidential vote in favour of President Gloria Arroyo.

The political opposition publicly released audio tapes in which a man sounding like Garcillano could be heard talking to a woman sounding like Arroyo conniving to manipulate the votes.

Arroyo had repeatedly denied any wrong doing, but later made a public apology for a "lapse in judgment" in phoning an elections official she did not name in the middle of a vote count.

Her popularity tumbled after the apology but her political opponents in two successive bids failed to impeach her in Congress, which is dominated by her allies.

Commission spokesman James Jimenez said Dalaig's family and colleagues were awaiting results of an official autopsy, declining to speculate on the motive.

"He is a big loss for the Comelec," he said, adding that Dalaig has been with the commission for 30 years and was about to retire.