EDITORIAL - What next after deportation?

Within a week or two former police Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino may be back in Manila after being deported from the United States for being an undocumented alien. What do Philippine law enforcers intend to do with him then?

Manila had canceled Aquino’s passport shortly after he fled the country in May 2001 together with police Senior Superintendent Cesar Mancao. The two, both former members of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), were later implicated by another police officer, Inspector Glenn Dumlao, in the abduction and murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2000.

No formal charges, however, have been filed against either Aquino or Mancao. The National Bureau of Investigation had asked a Manila court to allow Dumlao to turn state witness against Aquino and Mancao, but the court had rejected the petition, noting that Dumlao was not the least guilty in the case. The NBI then elevated the case to the Supreme Court, which has yet to decide on the petition.

Several former members of the PAOCTF are now being tried together with some civilians for the murders of Dacer and Corbito. To this day, however, the mastermind has not been identified. Investigators said the two victims were brought to Cavite where they were tortured before being killed. Their remains were found months later and identified through dental records. While law enforcers were piecing together what happened to the two victims, Aquino studied nursing and Mancao worked as a security guard in the United States using fake documents, according to the NBI.

Now Aquino may soon be back as authorities in New York prepare to deport him. Once he returns, nothing can restrict his movements within the country because there is no warrant for his arrest and he has not been indicted for any crime. And while he may have no passport, there are many ways of leaving this country even without valid travel documents. Considering the pace of justice in this country, by the time a final court ruling is handed down on the NBI petition, Aquino may have skipped town again.