Michael Ray posts $50,000 bail in US

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco said yesterday former Police Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino has been granted temporary liberty by a US court after posting bail of $50,000.

The NBI received reports that Aquino, previously connected with the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), had been released from detention at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in New York.

"It was only today that I was informed that Aquino posted the bail last Monday. It is his right to post bail," Wycoco said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, widely known as Aquino’s mentor when the former was still chief of the Philippine National Police in 2000, also confirmed the release.

During a brief conversation with his protégé over the phone, Lacson said Aquino was optimistic that his stay in the US would be legalized.

"He was released and he has high hopes that his status would be legalized," the senator said.

Wycoco pointed out, however, that his liberty would only be temporary "since on April 14, they would start the hearing on his being an undocumented alien."

The NBI is still in the process of collating all the pertinent documents on Aquino. These include case records on the murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito as well as the Kuratong Baleleng incident.

Wycoco said that by April 14, the NBI would have all the documents being sought by US authorities. The papers would be submitted to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office in Manila.

Aquino was nabbed by elements of the ICE, which is under the DHS, at the Federal Plaza in New York City last March 7 for violation of US immigration laws.

"His legal documents had been cancelled by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). If he violated immigration laws, he would be deported. He cannot claim political asylum since he has criminal cases here," Wycoco said.

At present, there are no pending warrants for Aquino’s arrest. Authorities are still waiting for Supreme Court resolution on a Department of Justice (DOJ) appeal for the reversal of a decision of a lower court.

The court earlier denied a DOJ request to turn suspect Inspector Glenn Dumlao as a state witness. The Manila court refused on the basis that he was not the least guilty of the suspects.