DOJ awaits Mancao arrest warrant before seeking extradition

The Department of Justice on Tuesday said they must wait for a warrant of arrest to be issued against former Philippine National Police Senior Supt. Cesar Mancao before they can file for his extradition from the United States. State Prosecutor Philipp Kimpo said they still have a pending petition with the Manila Regional Trial Court to issue a warrant of arrest against Mancao and face trial for his alleged role country in the 2001 murder of public relations officer Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito. "We will really apply for extradition of Mancao if the Manila RTC will issue a warrant of arrest against him" Kimpo said. Mancao was taken into custody last Thursday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation from his Miami, Florida home. Kimpo said that there the Department of Foreign Affairs is still clarifying whether US authorities plan to use Mancao as a witness or will charge him as co-accused of former PNP Senior Supt. Michael Ray Aquino, who was arrested in September 2005 at his New York home for espionage. US authorities charged Aquino for conspiring with Filipino-American FBI intelligence analyst Leandro Argoncilo in allegedly downloading classified US documents and transmitting the information, without authorization, to opposition politicians in Manila. "In the case of the Dacer-Corbito double murder case, Mancao cannot be used as a state witness against Aquino because he is next to him and he could not be considered the least guilty," Kimpo said. Mancao and Aquino were both served under the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (Paoctf) and were close aides of Senator Panfilo Lacson when the lawmaker headed the PNP during the administration of former President Joseph Estrada. Mancao and Aquino fled to the US following the 2001 "EDSA 2" people power uprising that ousted the Estrada administration. Kimpo earlier said that they are set to present their first witness in the Dacer-Corbito kidnapping and double murder case on May 3. Kimpo said their first witness saw the accused while abducting Dacer and Corbito along Osmena Highway, before he the public relations man and his driver were brought to Cavite. "He is an eyewitness who could positively identify those persons who abducted Dacer and Corbito," Kimpo said. Kimpo added another PNP official, Supt. Glen Dumlao, was reinstated as an accused in the Dacer-Corbito case based on the ruling issued by the Supreme Court on Oct. 13 last year. "There was modification in the information that we filed in court as ruled by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that Dumlao cannot be included as a witness under the witness protection program of the government because he is a police officer. He should first be charged and be discharged as an accused before he could turn into a witness of the prosecution panel," Kimpo said. Kimpo said Dumlao has not yet been traced by the government but may have already joined Mancao in the US. -GMANews.TV