DOJ: Ang delaying extradition process

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said yesterday it expects Charlie "Atong" Ang, an ally of jailed former President Joseph Estrada, to block his immediate extradition to the Philippines by the US by delaying the process.

"We expect them (Ang and his US lawyers) to raise all possible defenses during the proceedings just to delay the extradition process," Undersecretary Meceditas Gutierrez told reporters.

Ang had initially used the imposition of death penalty on his plunder case as one of the reasons why he shouldn’t be sent back home, but since Nevada also has capital punishment, this was no longer an issue.

Article 5 of the RP-US Extradition Treaty states that if the state to whom the extradition request is made does not allow lethal injection, and punishment in the requesting state requires such, then the requested government can "refuse" the request unless an undertaking is made.

Nevertheless, sources said the Estrada crony might use as defense the argument that he cannot be deported to the Philippines since there is no plunder law in Nevada, or its equivalent.

Ang was arrested late November by US Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. The federal court has scheduled the first hearing on Ang’s case on Feb. 28 next year.

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said that with Ang’s arrest, it will only be a matter of time before Estrada’s personal auditor Yolanda Ricaforte and crony Jaime Dichaves are also arrested by federal authorities. Both are hiding in the US.

Ang and Ricaforte are both co-accused of jailed former President Estrada in the P4 billion plunder case now pending in the third division of the Sandiganbayan. Once they are turned over to the country, they will be arrested and will go directly to jail.