Lacson advises Michael Ray to rebuild his life

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Panfilo Lacson has encouraged his former deputy in the police force, former colonel Michael Ray Aquino, to rebuild his life after his career was interrupted by the 2001 EDSA 2 and the filing of charges linking him to the kidnap-slay of publicist Salvador Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2000.

A Manila court recently dismissed the Dacer-Corbito case and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) freed Aquino in December 2012.

Lacson, however, said he is not privy to Aquino’s plan to seek reinstatement in the Philippine National Police. 

“I have no information on his reported application for reinstatement, although he indicated his plan to me when we met after his release from detention,” Lacson said. 

“I advised him though to rebuild his future as well as his life in the corporate world where he is at present connected,” said Lacson, now on his last term as senator.

Aquino was Lacson’s deputy director at the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF). He is a member of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1981.

Shortly after former President Joseph Estrada was removed from office in 2001, Aquino was among the PAOCTF officers who fled to the United States.

He was eventually arrested for holding an expired passport, then convicted for espionage in the US a few years ago before he was extradited to the Philippines to face charges in the Dacer-Corbito kidnap-slay, where Lacson was also accused.

Lacson downplayed reports Aquino was his aide. “He worked under me as many Philippine National Police personnel did in my many field assignments, including during my stint as chief of the PNP,” he said.