GMANews 
Ten years after he left the Philippines, former police colonel 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 to a decade ago to supposedly escape prosecution over the Dacer-Corbito killings.
Aquino arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 (NAIA-2) early Sunday morning and is set to be brought to the NBI headquarters in Manila.
The former police officer is considered a protégé of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who used to be considered the principal suspect in the twin killings. The Court of Appeals has recently ordered the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18 to drop the two counts of murder that the Department of Justice filed against the senator.
Looking back: Dacer-Corbito killings
Aquino was a member of the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), the unit that allegedly carried out Dacer's and Corbito's killings in November 2000.
At that time, Lacson was Philippine National Police chief and concurrent PAOCTF head. Some of his subordinates at the latter were Aquino, and then police officers Cezar Mancao II and Glenn Dumlao.
Aquino headed the PAOCTF's operations division, while Mancao led the unit's Task Group Luzon with Dumlao as his deputy.
Aquino and Mancao left the Philippines on June 24, 2001 — supposedly on the instructions of Lacson, who has just elected as senator in May that year. Dumlao also went to the US in May 2003.
In an affidavit executed two years ago, Mancao said Lacson wanted them to leave the country because the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo "would surely go after us and link us in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case."
The Department of Justice filed murder charges against Dumlao in May 2001 and against Mancao and Aquino in September that year. However, it was only in 2008 when the DOJ — then under the leadership of Raul Gonzalez — started extradition proceedings for Mancao, Dumlao, and Aquino.
Mancao and Dumlao were extradited in 2009, while Aquino decided to seek court action to fight his extradition. Aquino's bid was unsuccessful, and his defeat at the US Court of Appeals in April this year paved the way for his extradition to the Philippines.
Michael Ray’s affidavit clears Lacson
While in detention in New Jersey, Aquino executed an affidavit dated August 9, 2010, clearing Lacson of involvement in the Dacer-Corbito killngs.
Aquino said that contrary to what Mancao testified, Lacson never gave him orders 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.
Espionage
Aquino may have fled to the United States in 2001, but it was only in 2005 when he was arrested by American authorities.
The arrest, however, did not stem from the Dacer-Corbito case. Note that the Philippine DOJ began extraditions in 2008.
Aquino was arrested in September 2005 for his unauthorized possession of US confidential documents described as a “blueprint" to topple Arroyo.
In July 2006, Aquino pleaded guilty to charges of unauthorized possession of US documents. He entered the guilty plea to the lower offense to avoid the heavier charge of espionage, which is punishable by life imprisonment.
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
Aquino was accompanied by Philippine National Bureau of Investigation agents when he was extradited from the United States, where he went to a decade ago to supposedly escape prosecution over the Dacer-Corbito killings.
Aquino arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 (NAIA-2) early Sunday morning and is set to be brought to the NBI headquarters in Manila.
The former police officer is considered a protégé of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who used to be considered the principal suspect in the twin killings. The Court of Appeals has recently ordered the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18 to drop the two counts of murder that the Department of Justice filed against the senator.
Looking back: Dacer-Corbito killings
Aquino was a member of the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), the unit that allegedly carried out Dacer's and Corbito's killings in November 2000.
At that time, Lacson was Philippine National Police chief and concurrent PAOCTF head. Some of his subordinates at the latter were Aquino, and then police officers Cezar Mancao II and Glenn Dumlao.
Aquino headed the PAOCTF's operations division, while Mancao led the unit's Task Group Luzon with Dumlao as his deputy.
Aquino and Mancao left the Philippines on June 24, 2001 — supposedly on the instructions of Lacson, who has just elected as senator in May that year. Dumlao also went to the US in May 2003.
In an affidavit executed two years ago, Mancao said Lacson wanted them to leave the country because the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo "would surely go after us and link us in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case."
The Department of Justice filed murder charges against Dumlao in May 2001 and against Mancao and Aquino in September that year. However, it was only in 2008 when the DOJ — then under the leadership of Raul Gonzalez — started extradition proceedings for Mancao, Dumlao, and Aquino.
Mancao and Dumlao were extradited in 2009, while Aquino decided to seek court action to fight his extradition. Aquino's bid was unsuccessful, and his defeat at the US Court of Appeals in April this year paved the way for his extradition to the Philippines.
Michael Ray’s affidavit clears Lacson
While in detention in New Jersey, Aquino executed an affidavit dated August 9, 2010, clearing Lacson of involvement in the Dacer-Corbito killngs.
Aquino said that contrary to what Mancao testified, Lacson never gave him orders 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.
Espionage
Aquino may have fled to the United States in 2001, but it was only in 2005 when he was arrested by American authorities.
The arrest, however, did not stem from the Dacer-Corbito case. Note that the Philippine DOJ began extraditions in 2008.
Aquino was arrested in September 2005 for his unauthorized possession of US confidential documents described as a “blueprint" to topple Arroyo.
In July 2006, Aquino pleaded guilty to charges of unauthorized possession of US documents. He entered the guilty plea to the lower offense to avoid the heavier charge of espionage, which is punishable by life imprisonment.
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
