By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© 2009 Journal Group Link International)

C HICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – Exactly nine years to the day Monday, Nov. 23, (Nov. 24, Tuesday in Manila), publicist Salvador “Buddy” Dacer and Dacer’s driver Emmanuel Corbito were abducted in mid-morning at the boundary of Manila and Makati along the South Expressway. They were later choked and burned to death in Cavite.

On Monday, Magistrate Judge Esther Salas of the U.S. District Court of New Jersey in Newark had come full circle with the case when she deferred the ruling on the extradition of one of the alleged conspirators of the Dacer-Corbito murders.

At the extradition hearing on Monday, the United States government insisted that there is probable cause that former Philippine police officer Michael Ray B. Aquino had conspired in the killing of Dacer and Corbito.

U.S. Assistant Attorney Eric T. Kanefsky told this reporter over the phone that he merely repeated his formal arguments he presented to Judge Salas  during the two-and-a-half hour extradition hearing of Aquino Monday.

A showing of probable cause is all that is needed to ensure the extradition of Aquino to the Philippines, where Aquino faces a double-murder charge along with more than a dozen other co-accused, who conspired allegedly in the abduction and killing of Dacer and Corbito on Nov. 24, 2000.

Also being linked to the double murder were Aquino’s former superiors, General-turned-Senator Panfilo Lacson and former President Joseph Estrada. Both Lacson and Estrada had denied the accusations.

Aquino witnessed the extradition proceedings but there was no need “for him to make any statement in that proceeding,” Kanefsky said. He also observed the presence of Aquino’s relative, probably Aquino's wife, Fatima, in the court room.

Aquino’s lawyer, Mark A. Berman, could not be reached for comment.

Court sources could not give any time frame within which Judge Salas would hand down the decision.

In separate extradition hearings of Aquino’s co-accused Glenn G. Dumlao and Cezar O. Mancao II, the judges both decided the cases on the same day after the extradition hearings.

 “The totality of the affidavits of Mancao and Dumlao has established the probable cause,” Kanefsky said.

In one of those affidavits of Dumlao, it was disclosed that Aquino ordered Dumlao to surreptitiously enter Dacer’s office in the hotel rooms at the Manila Hotel and take whatever documents he could get. When Dumlao hesitated in carrying out the job for fear of “being detected, Aquino instructed Dumlao to burn [the hotel] down, bomb it, just as long as their documents and computers are destroyed.”

In his affidavit, Mr. Mancao said “in October 2000,” he “overheard Aquino tell Lacson that he intended to “liquidate,” i.e., kill Dacer because President Estrada was “peeved at him.”

In asking Judge Salas not to ‘support entry of an Order of Extradition,’ Aquino does not admit (and has never admitted) that he ordered the abduction or interrogation of Dacer. – Mark A. Berman, lawyer of Michael Ray B. Aquino

At the direction of Aquino, on Nov. 24, 2000, Dacer together with his personal driver Emmanuel Corbito were abducted at gunpoint.

Aquino, then, texted Dumlao that Dacer had been abducted and ordered Dumlao to interrogate Dacer. (Former Police Chief Inspector Vicente) Arnado also headed to Dacer’s location. Another officer, former Police Superintendent Teofilo Vina, was also directed by Aquino to interrogate Dacer.

In his written arguments to Judge Salas, Aquino’s lawyer, Berman, pointed out that Aquino has no part in the conspiracy, saying the murders were decisions by his subordinates.

Berman said Aquino may have “ordered the investigation and that he directed (former police superintendent Glenn G.) Dumlao to interrogate Dacer. (But) there is no evidence whatsoever that the interrogation was itself unlawful.”

In asking Judge Salas not to “support entry of an Order of Extradition,” Mr. Berman said that Aquino “does not admit (and has never admitted) that he ordered the abduction or interrogation of Dacer.”

Berman said, it was “Dumlao and Arnado (who) directed other PAOCTF (Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force) members to kill Dacer and Corbito.

Citing the “doctrine of respondeat superior,” which “cannot support imposition of individual criminal liability,” Berman said, “the mere existence of a chain of command within the Philippines National Police does not show that Aquino ordered the murders; notably, the government does not cite a single case for the proposition that the existence of a chain of command tends to show that a superior officer directed the unlawful acts of his subordinates.”

Berman cited inconsistencies offered by the U.S. government, saying that while SPO4 Marino Soberano and SPO3 Jose Escalante “aver that Dumlao and Arnado ordered the killings, Dumlao denied the allegation that he was complicit in the Dacer and Corbito murders.”

Berman added that while “Dumlao and (former Police Superintendent Cezar O.) Mancao vigorously deny participation in the murders, each accuses the other of culpable involvement.”

Regardless of these inconsistencies of the proofs offered by the Philippine government, Berman said, “there are no inconsistencies in the evidence insofar as this evidence pertains to Aquino: neither Dumlao, nor Soberano, nor Escalante say that Aquino ordered the murders of Dacer and Corbito.”

Berman said the U.S. government concocted the fantasy when it argued that Dumlao and Arnado would not have ordered the killings of Dacer and Corbito in connection with Aquino’s special operation without being directed to do so by Aquino. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)

© opyright 2009 The Journal Group Link International. The contents provided in the JGLi may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of the Journal Group Link International.

(Editor’s Note: Watch out for the upcoming outlet-oriented, subscription-based website of Journal Group Link International that guarantees originally sourced stories, features, photos, audios and videos and multi-media contents.)