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Ten years after he left the Philippines, former police Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino is back in the country to answer for the killings of veteran publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito. Aquino was accompanied by Philippine National Bureau of Investigation agents when he was extradited from the United States, where he went a decade ago to supposedly escape prosecution over the Dacer-Corbito killings in November 2000.
Michael Ray Aquino statement
Bago po ang lahat, gusto ko pong pasalamatan ang Poong Maykapal, ang aking pamilya at ang lahat ng taong tumulong at sumuporta sa akin for the ten most trying and challenging years of my life. You know who you are. Maraming salamat po sa inyong lahat. Lawyers who were assisting me in my pro se case in the United States advised me that I have strong grounds to appeal to the Supreme Court the decision of the United States Court of Appeals allowing my extradition to the Philippines. After consulting with my family, I have decided that it would be best to let the extradition process take its course. I sincerely believe that this is my opportunity to clear my name, prove my innocence and finally put to rest all speculations about me. Being falsely accused almost a decade ago for a crime I did not commit was not at all a surprise to me. What is tragic is that my family was not spared. My wife and son were regularly flagged down and harassed every time they left our home. Dumating pa yung panahon that my innocent son, young as he was then, began trembling, as if having anxiety or panic attacks, every time he saw uniformed police officers, and vehemently refused to go inside Camp Crame. At that particular point, I knew I had to make some very painful decisions in life. I sacrificed my career in exchange for freedom; uprooted my family and went on self-exile; and pursued other goals. I feared not the prosecution but the persecution, and for the safety and security of my family. I was interviewed by the media ten years ago and I categorically denied any knowledge of, and participation and involvement in, the alleged Dacer-Corbito case. That’s the truth and nothing has changed since then. Then and now, I still maintain my innocence. Moreover, gusto ko pong malaman ng sambayanang Pilipino na wala pong utos sa akin si President Joseph Ejercito Estrada o si Senator Panfilo M. Lacson to kidnap, harm and/or murder anyone specifically Mr. Salvador Dacer and Mr. Emmanuel Corbito. Wala na po akong maidaragdag, dahil wala po akong karagdagang kaalaman. Finally, I would like reiterate to everyone that I am now ready to face my accusers and to prove my innocence. I just hope and fervently pray that this time around, my guaranteed constitutional rights to due process — to have an honest-to-goodness preliminary investigation, to a speedy and public trial, to have the compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in my favor, to present controverting evidence, to have the assistance of a counsel of my own choice, to enjoy my rights to remain silent, and to exhaust all available legal remedies — would be respected and safe-guarded by the authorities concerned. Salamat po ng marami. Diyos ti agngina kanyayo amin. Daghang salamat sa inyong tanan.
A year later, Aquino was sentenced to six years and four months in prison for his supposed role in an effort to use the information to undermine the Arroyo administration. Aquino was originally indicted for conspiring with former FBI intelligence analyst Leandro Aragoncillo and high-level national public officials in the Philippines to defraud the US government by impeding its function in protecting classified information from disclosure. He was also indicted for acting in the United States as agent of a foreign government without prior notification from the US attorney general. But in April 2009, a New Jersey federal judge reduced his sentence to three years and 10 months, or about the time Aquino has served, counting credit for good behavior. Aquino, however, remained under US custody because of the extradition proceedings he was facing over the Dacer-Corbito killings in the Philippines. — MRT/LBG/HS, GMA News
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