By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© 2009 Journal Group Link International)

C HICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – The lawyer of Michael Ray Aquino is likely to file a motion for reconsideration or may go directly to the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to appeal the adverse ruling Aquino got from Judge Esther Salas of the United States District Court of New Jersey in Newark last Thursday (March 4).

Judge Salas ordered the extradition of Aquino after establishing probable cause that the former Filipino police officer was involved in the twin murders of Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and Dacer’s driver, Emmanuel Corbito more than nine years ago.

In an e-mail to this reporter, seeking comment on Judge Salas’ decision, Mark A. Berman only said Friday (March 5), “We are considering our options.”

Mr. Berman, who also assisted Aquino in the spying case that earned Aquino more than six years in prison before the same U.S. District Court of New Jersey, however, did not file a motion for reconsideration to shorten Aquino's sentence.

Instead, Berman’s elevated Aquino’s case of “unlawfully possessing secret U.S. government documents” before the U.S. Courts of Appeals of the Third Circuit, where he got a favorable ruling for Aquino when Aquino’s sentence was cut in half that was equivalent to time served.

A quino’s extradition was originally filed before the Eastern District Court of North Carolina in Raleigh but U.S. Magistrate Judge William A. Webb of the Eastern District of North Carolina transferred his case to the United States District Court of New Jersey in Newark “in the light of the defendant’s presence in the State of New Jersey.”

In her 24-page opinion, Judge Salas overruled as “misplaced” Aquino’s objection that “certain statements within the Government’s package … (are) hearsay statements,” citing a ruling from a Sixth Circuit court that “hearsay evidence is admissible during extradition proceedings.”

Salas also dismissed as “technical rather substantive” Aquino’s second objection that the U.S. government “failed to provide him with the most recent charging information,” saying such “ministerial error – which has been corrected – would be to turn justice on its head and perhaps could open the door to merit less objections.”

Salas did not entertain Aquino’s third objection “to the Government entering its third exhibit into evidence,” citing Brady evidence and translations of all the documents into English, saying “the Court did not utilize any information” from that exhibit.

A Brady evidence is an evidence "favorable" to the defendant if it either helps the defendant or hurts the prosecution.

As to Aquino’s fourth objection in “Court’s use of information about Aquino’s involvement in other murders and other special operations into political opponents of then President Estrada,” Salas ignored the objection, saying, “similar to Aquino’s third objection, this objection need not be addressed because the Court neither utilized such information during its analysis nor in reaching its conclusion.”

In determining the probable cause against the 43-year-old Aquino, Salas “found the Affidavit by Glenn Dumlao to be critical.” Dumlao was Aquino’s subordinate officer in the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), which was constituted on July 22, 1998, following the Presidential election of Joseph Estrada.

The PAOCTF, designed to “combat criminal syndicates both in public and private sectors,” was headed by then General-turned Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who directly reported to Estrada. Aquino, who served as Chief of Operations Division, reported to Lacson.

Judge Salas tied Aquino to the murders when Aquino “tasked” (assigned) Dumlao to monitor Dacer in his office housed at a Manila Hotel room in January 1999.

Aquino ordered Dumlao “to surreptitiously enter the room, take whatever documents he could find, and also instructed Dumlao to monitor the individuals that were visiting Dacer.”

When Dumlao failed to “obtain any useful information,” Aquino is “alleged to have instructed Dumlao to either burn down or bomb Dacer’s hotel room.”

Later in October 2000, Aquino summoned Dumlao intending to revive the Dacer investigation that had gone cold. When Dumlao told Aquino that he was preoccupied with other matters, Aquino said he would assign (former Police Chief Inspector Vicente) Arnado to the Dacer investigation.

Salas believes that when another police officer Cezar O. Mancao II, a police superintendent and chief of Task Force Luzon, “questioned Aquino about Arnado’s special operations task, Aquino responded that this was something that would be taken up with General Lacson. As such, it is evident that Arnado was being supervised by Aquino with regard to his role in the Dacer investigation.”  (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net) # # #

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