Court orders arrest of Aquino, Mancao

A Manila judge ordered yesterday the arrest of former police Senior Superintendents Michael Ray Aquino and Cesar Mancao in connection with the murders of public relations practitioner Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

In a three-page order, Manila regional trial court Branch 18 Judge Myra Garcia-Fernandez also ordered the arrest of Senior Police Officer 2 Allan Villanueva for his involvement in the Dacer-Corbito case, citing probable cause.

Fernandez also ordered the prosecutors to submit within 10 days the proof of death of one of the 20 accused in the double murder case, former Senior Superintendent Teofilo Viña.

Fernandez dismissed the motion filed by Aquino’s lawyers last Feb. 23 asking for a suspension of proceedings for a preliminary investigation of his case.

She explained the new rules on criminal procedure does not require as a precondition the validity of the proceedings in the preliminary investigation.

"(All it needs is) the presence of the accused for as long as efforts to reach him were made and an opportunity to controvert the evidence of the complainant is accorded him," Fernandez said.

Aquino and Mancao were tagged as the prime suspects in the killing of Dacer and Corbito in November 2000.

Before they could be charged in Manila in July 2001, both fled to the United States.

Aquino was arrested in the US last year for allegedly passing on classified information coming from Filipino-American Leandro Aragoncillo, an intelligence analyst of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Aquino was indicted on Oct. 6 on a conspiracy charge which carries a jail sentence of up to five years, and another charge for acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign official, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.

The former police colonel has pleaded not guilty to the charges and was denied bail since he was considered a flight risk.

His lawyer filed a motion before the Manila court claiming Aquino was denied his constitutional right for a preliminary investigation of the case.

Mancao, on the other hand, was taken into custody by the FBI as a possible witness for the espionage case involving Aquino and Aragoncillo. He was later freed after posting bail.

Both Aquino and Mancao were ranking officers of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) along with Villanueva whose operatives were implicated in the kidnapping and murder of Dacer and Corbito.

Fernandez said a preliminary investigation can be conducted "ex parte" if Aquino has not been properly summoned.

She said the issue of whether or not Aquino was duly represented by his lawyer in the preliminary investigation is not material since "there is nothing in the rules (of criminal procedure) which renders invalid a preliminary investigation held without the accused’s counsel."

Fernandez said Aquino "did not deny in his reply that he received a subpoena from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to appear at the preliminary investigation on two scheduled dates in July 2001.

She said Aquino, through his lawyer, did not also question the proceedings that required him to submit his counter-affidavits within five days.

But after his failure to submit his reply, Aquino’s motion for a preliminary investigation of the case against him would now be "a futile exercise," Fernandez said.

Senior State Prosecutor Philip Kimpo said the issuance of the warrants of arrest for Aquino and Mancao would set into motion the extradition efforts for the two erstwhile police officers in the US.

Kimpo said that as far as the DOJ is concerned, there is no clear information on whether the US authorities will use Mancao as a witness against Aquino in the espionage case.

He said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) was requesting clarification of the real status of Mancao and why he was being detained n the US.

"But in the case of the Dacer-Corbito double murder, Mancao cannot be used as a state witness against Aquino (since) he could not be considered the least guilty," Kimpo pointed out.

Kimpo, however, admitted that the Philippine government will have to wait for Aquino’s trial in the US to be finished before they could move for extradition.

Kimpo earlier announced that they were preparing to present their first witness in the double murder case.

He said the witness would testify that he saw the accused abduct Dacer and Corbito along Osmeña Highway in Manila before bringing the two to Cavite.

The charred remains of Dacer and Corbito were later found in Barangay Buena Lejos in Indang, Cavite.

Forensic investigation showed that the two were strangled to death before their bodies were burned.

Witnesses later identified PAOCTF operatives who had carried out the murder before disposing of the bodies.

Aside from Aquino, Mancao, and Villanueva, the others accused in the double murder case include Senior Police Officer 4 (SPO4) Marino Soberano; SPOs3 Mauro Torres and Jose Escalante; Chief Inspector Vicente Arnado; Inspector Roberto Langcauon; SPO4 Benjamin Taladua; SPO1 Rolando Lacansandile; Inspector Danilo Villanueva; SPOs1 Mario Sarmiento, William Reed and Ruperto Nemeno; and PO2 Thomas Sarmiento.

Kimpo said Superintendent Glen Dumlao, the police officer who directly implicated Aquino and Mancao in the double murders, was reinstated as an accused, based on the ruling issued by the High Court on Oct. 13 last year.

Kimpo admitted reports indicating Dumlao may have already left for the US.