DOJ: Michael Ray Aquino’s extradition ‘in a few weeks’

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is now preparing for the extradition of former police officer Michael Ray Aquino, a suspect in the high profile Dacer-Corbito double murder case after all legal means to prevent his return to the Philippines have been exhausted. “The information given to us is that there are no more legal impediments for his extradition," said DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima on Thursday. De Lima said they are now waiting for the official notice from their counterparts in the US that all is set for Aquino’s extradition. “What we are awaiting from our US counterparts, the US-DOJ, is a formal written note informing us that the extradition process has been completed," she said, adding that the confirmation could happen “in a few weeks." “We’re just talking here about a few weeks’ confirmation," she said. The ball started rolling after the US Court of Appeal rejected recently Aquino’s appeal to prevent his extradition. According to De Lima, once the extradition process is completed, a Philippine representative will be sent to the US to fetch Aquino. Suspect Aquino, a former police colonel, is among the suspects in the killing of veteran publicist Salvador “Bubby" Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000. The double murder case filed against them is being handled by the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18. Aquino is considered a protégé of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who was a suspect in the case until recently when the Court of Appeals ordered the dismissal of the criminal charges against him and the revocation of the arrest warrants issued against him. Lacson used to head the Philippine National Police and the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, the unit that allegedly carried out the Dacer-Corbito killings. Once Aquino returns to the Philippines, De Lima said, he will be detained at the Manila City Jail. “In the absence of a contrary court order which specifically says where he will be detained, it will be at the city jail, the regular jail facility," the Justice chief said. State witness De Lima, meanwhile, said there are no indications so far that Aquino would be qualified as a state witness in the Dacer-Corbito murders. “In the absence of a clear proof as to who is exactly the principal or the mastermind, there’s no indication at all he’s a possible state witness. He might not qualify as a state witness," she said. According to De Lima, for a suspect to qualify as a state witness, he or she must not appear to be the most guilty. “But he (Aquino) was the head of the team. The orders were coming from him, unless he can tell us that there’s a higher officer," she said. Aquino, during his stint in the police force, served under the PAOCTF as head of the unit's operations division. Other members of the group were former police Senior Superintendent Cezar Mancao II, who headed the PAOCTF's Task Group Luzon, and former Superintendent Glenn Dumlao, Mancao’s deputy for operations. Michael Ray’s affidavit clears Lacson In an affidavit executed on August 9, 2010 in Hudson County in New Jersey, Aquino said he never received any orders from Lacson to finish off a certain “Delta" and “Bero." "I specifically deny there was any order given to me by then Police Director General Panfilo M. Lacson to liquidate any person, specifically a certain ‘Bero’ and ‘Delta’ sometime in October 2000 or as testified by Mr. Mancao in open court during his testimony in support of his Motion [for] Discharge as State witness ‘sometime in September and early part of October 2000,’" said Aquino. He added that as far as he knows, Lacson "has no personal knowledge about any special operations against any person, much less against a certain ‘Delta’ or ‘Bero.’" Aquino’s former colleague, Mancao, had claimed in his Feb. 13, 2009 affidavit that “Delta" referred to Dacer while “Bero" referred to former police general Reynaldo Berroya, Lacson’s long-time nemesis. - KBK/RSJ, GMA News