Michael Ray Aquino fights extradition

MANILA, Philippines - Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor reported yesterday that former police senior superintendent Michael Ray Aquino is fighting his extradition to avoid trial for the murder of Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2000.

Blancaflor said Aquino’s lawyer had filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in a US court in an apparent bid to delay his extradition as ordered by a US District Court of New Jersey in Newark last week.

“This is in effect opposing the extradition. I am second-guessing that this is a dilatory tactic. Because even if the extradition becomes final and executory, Aquino cannot be extradited because there is a pending habeas corpus case,” he explained.

Blancaflor, who has just been assigned as Director-General of the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), said the camp of Aquino raised practically the same issues they cited in opposing his extradition before the New Jersey court.

He said the government, through the US Justice Department, would oppose this recent move of Aquino.

He reiterated that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had no plan to discharge Aquino as an accused in the killings of Dacer and Corbito.

Aquino lawyer Mark Berman would likely file a motion for reconsideration or may go directly to the US Court of Appeals of the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to appeal the adverse ruling.

Aquino was jailed for 42 months in a federal facility in North Carolina after pleading guilty in 2007 to possession of classified federal documents.

He then appealed for a reduced sentence, arguing that the initial ruling was based on a mistaken interpretation of federal guidelines and then New Jersey District Court Judge William Walls reduced his sentence for possessing classified US documents from 76 months to time served.

The Newark court ordered Aquino’s release in March last year but he was transferred to the custody of federal immigration officials for his extradition case.