MANILA, Philippines - Former police officer Michael Ray Aquino arrived yesterday morning from the United States to stand trial for the murders of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.
After 10 years of hiding in the US, Aquino denied his involvement in the gruesome killings.
Aquino also cleared Sen. Panfilo Lacson and former President Joseph Estrada of involvement in the murders.
“I’d like to tell the Filipino people that President Joseph Estrada and Sen. Panfilo Lacson did not order me to kidnap, harm and/or murder anyone, specifically Mr. Salvador Dacer and Mr. Emmanuel Corbito,” the handcuffed Aquino told the media shortly after his arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 at 6:47 a.m. yesterday.
Aquino arrived under heavy guard and was taken in a long security convoy to detention at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) main office in Manila.
Asked if he would help identify the mastermind, Aquino said he could not since he was not even aware of the crime.
“I was interviewed by the media 10 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,” he said.
Aquino added that he had bittersweet feelings about returning home after a decade-long absence and that he made the decision to prove his innocence and resume a normal life.
Aquino said he decided to no longer fight his extradition before the US Supreme Court for his family’s sake.
“I am now ready to face my accusers and to prove my innocence,” he said.
Aquino appealed to the government to respect his constitutional rights and give him a fair and speedy trial.
“I hope that I will be treated fairly and that my rights will be respected,” Aquino earlier told ABS-CBN on board a Philippine Airlines flight to Manila.
The handcuffed Aquino, in pale collared shirt, black jacket and cream slacks, read a prepared statement upon his arrival.
“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,” he said.
Aquino claimed he did not leave the country in July 2001 to evade prosecution, saying it was “a career sacrifice in exchange for freedom” and “self-exile.”
“I feared not the prosecution but the persecution, and for the safety and security of my family,” he said.
After reading the prepared statement, Aquino did not answer further questions from the media and was immediately hustled by his heavily armed escorts to the NBI main office.
‘One step closer’
Malacañang said the successful extradition of Aquino to the country is “one step closer” to the possible closure of the nearly 11-year-old murder case.
“We hope that his (Aquino) return would bring us one step closer to the resolution of the Dacer-Corbito double murder case because it’s been a long time that this case has been pending in courts. We hope it brings us one step closer to closure,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.
Valte said the people who will benefit most from this latest development are the families of the victims, who have long been seeking justice.
“For the sake of those involved in the case, and for the sake of the family of the slain victims, we hope that this would finally bring closure,” Valte said.
Dacer and Corbito were snatched at a busy intersection in Manila on Nov. 24, 2000. They were found strangled the following year in a creek bed in Cavite. Their bodies had been doused with gasoline and burned. Investigators identified their corpses using dental records.
Dacer’s clients included Estrada, who has also denied any hand in the publicist’s murder. There have been speculations that Estrada and Dacer had an unspecified feud prior to the slayings.
At least two witnesses - former police officers Cezar Mancao and Glenn Dumlao - alleged that members of Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) were responsible for the slayings. Aquino was the operations chief of the anti-crime unit at the time of the killings.
Mancao, another key accused who was also extradited from the US in 2009 after agreeing to turn state witness, implicated Lacson and Estrada in the killings.
Lacson, now a senator, denied any involvement but hid for more than a year and returned home after the Court of Appeals voided the warrant for his arrest.
Estrada reiterated yesterday that he had nothing to do with the slaying of Dacer and Corbito.
“I have nothing to say. From the very start, I have nothing to do with that (slayings),” he said.
Estrada refused to comment further on Aquino’s statements clearing him and Lacson.
Mancao said yesterday that he was hoping that Aquino would tell the truth.
“I still hope he (Aquino) will tell the truth. He knows what is true,” Mancao said.
Mancao said he was already left on his own following his testimony pinning Estrada and Lacson to the murders.
His lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, also made the same call on Aquino.
“We hope that Mr. Aquino will hearken to the higher call of nationalism and tell the unvarnished truth in the long-standing proceedings in this grisly murders,” Topacio said.
The Dacers, through their legal counsel, Demetrio Custodio, called on Aquino to tell the truth and tell what he knows in the murder of their father.
“We’ve always been saying that what Michael Ray Aquino knows is important to the solving of the case. He was the highest official of PAOCTF. We are very sure he knew about it (operation to ‘neutralize Dacer’),” Custodio said.
The long way home
Aquino traveled to the US in 2001 after being implicated in the killings. He settled with his wife and son in New York, where he studied to be a nurse to start a new life.
American authorities, however, arrested him in 2005 due to an unrelated espionage case where he was accused of illegally accepting classified US documents about Philippine politics from Leandro Aragoncillo, a Filipino-American and a former US Marine who once worked as an aide to vice presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney.
Prosecutors alleged the documents were stolen as part of a plot to overthrow former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who took over from Estrada in 2001.
Aquino pleaded guilty in 2006 to possessing secret documents and was sentenced to a 76-month US federal prison term, which was later reduced by a federal judge due to time he had served in detention.
He remained in detention, however, while fighting the extradition bid of the Philippine government in relation to the Dacer-Corbito twin killings.
Aquino lost his battle against extradition and was turned over by US officials last week to NBI representatives who escorted him back to Manila.
NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula, a former subordinate of Lacson in the PAOCTF, said Aquino would stay in the same cell where Andal Ampatuan Jr., the principal accused in the Maguindanao massacre, was detained.
Gatdula gave assurance on the safety of Aquino during his stay in their detention facility, revealing that at least three layers of security were put in place at the NBI headquarters.
“We are assuring his security. It is our job to secure all the people detained in our center,” Gatdula said.
He said only Aquino’s legal counsel would be allowed to visit him for a limited number of hours a day.
Asked if the former police official would stay in the NBI during trial, Gatdula said it would depend on the decision of the court.
The NBI, he said, was only tasked to fetch Aquino and only the court would decide on where the former police officer would be detained during the trial.
Gatdula said Aquino’s lawyers are expected to ask the court to allow their client to stay at the NBI and not at the Manila City Jail, where his security may be threatened.
Reports also said they would move to allow Aquino to post bail.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima earlier said she believes Aquino would not qualify as state witness, which requires that the accused should be the least guilty in the crime.
De Lima said Aquino could apply depending on the testimony he would submit to the court.
“There is no indication so far that he would qualify as state witness. It seems that his participation (in the crime) is significant, so he might not qualify as state witness,” she said.
De Lima also said that Aquino and Mancao were not the highest officials behind the killings. She said “somebody higher” could have ordered the killing, which will be subject of the reinvestigation of the case.
Aquino’s return completes the list of the accused in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case.
Aquino’s testimony, however, is expected to contradict that of Mancao’s that was already denied by Dumlao, another key accused who was also extradited from the US earlier.
In this case, it would be Mancao’s word against those of Aquino and Dumlao with respect to the involvement of Lacson in the double murder. - Edu Punay, Delon Porcalla, Edith Regalado, Christina Mendez, Rudy Santos, AP