The return of Michael Ray Aquino

The U.S. Court of Appeals denied on Monday former Police Officer Michael Ray Aquino’s third appeal against the extradition requested by the Philippine government under then President Gloria Aquino in connection with the November 2000 murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito. “The petition for rehearing filed by Apellant having been submitted to all judges who participated in the decision of this court, and to all the other available circuit judges in active service, and a majority of circuit judges of the circuit in regular active service not having voted for rehearing by the court en banc, the petition for rehearing is hereby DENIED,” read the decision signed by Circuit Judge Thomas M. Hardiman. The U.S. has 60 days to enforce the extradition. I suppose the National Bureau of Investigation would be coordinating with American authorities for the return of Aquino who left the Philippines in July 2001 knowing that the Arroyo administration would make life difficult for them being identified with Sen. Panfilo Lacson, whom the Arroyos consider their number one tormentor. The April 25 decision of the US Court of Appeals was in reply to the last ditch appeal of Aquino received last April 11 arguing that the Philippine Court of Appeals’ declaration that his former colleague, Cezar Mancao, was not a credible and trustworthy witness in the Dacer-Corbito double murder, was a new development in the case. It will be recalled that the Philippine CA dismissed the case against Lacson after it declared Mancao’s testimony dragging Lacson into the murder case that happened during the last months of the Estrada administration when the senator was then concurrent chief of the Philippine National Police and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, and Aquino was in his staff. In his arguments filed with U.S. courts, Aquino has consistently assailed the credibility of the evidence presented by the prosecution in the Philippine court. He cited the prosecution’s claim that “Dacer and Corbito were blindfolded, tied and strangled to death. Their bodies were placed on top of a pile of stray wood and rubber tires, doused with gasoline and burned. The fire lasted for a mere thirty minutes, as declared by the prosecution witness at the trial. Recovered at the scene were a few pieces of bones and metal dental implants.” Aquino said that the prosecution’s narration that the bodies were burned defied science as even “a closed environment of a crematorium requires, on average, several hours” to burn a human body. He also cited a finding by the National Bureau of Investigation that the bones presented by the prosecution were animal remains. With Aquino’s impending return, the NBI should come up with those so alleged “remains” of Dacer and Corbito. I have tried inquiring about this a few months ago, and I was told it cannot be found. Looks like this is another Vizconde massacre case. There’s also another report that I would like to revisit. I recall a report quoting Fr. Gabriel Baldostamon, formerly a parish priest of the community where the Dacer’s daughters lived, overhearing a conversation between the Dacer daughters and Jose Almonte, former national security adviser of then President Fidel Ramos. The conversation hinted of different circumstances from the murder charges that were filed against Aquino,dragging Lacson in the process. Fr. Baldostamon is now parish priest of St. Nikolai church in Linkoping, Sweden.