Former VP Laurel dies at 75

Former VP Laurel dies at 75

PHILIPPINES: Salvador Laurel, a former vice president of the Philippines who has been fighting charges of graft, died of cancer early on Wednesday, his staff announced. He was 75.

Laurel died at the Stanford Hospital and Clinics in San Francisco, where he had been undergoing medical treatment for lymphoma, or cancer of the lymphoid tissue.

The son of former President Jose Laurel and doctor of law from Yale University, Laurel served under ex-President Corazon Aquino from 1986-1992. He was also a senator and briefly headed the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Laurel and Aquino were sworn into office on Feb. 25, 1986, following a "people power" revolt that toppled late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

In 1993, he was appointed by then-President Fidel Ramos to head the National Centennial Commission that oversaw preparations for the celebration of the country's 100th independence anniversary in 1998.

But last March, he was charged with graft on suspicion he improperly awarded a contract to build a 35,000-seat amphitheater at the former U.S. Clark Air Base north of Manila and increased the budget for the construction almost fivefold. -- AP