What Went Before: Michael Ray Aquino and the Dacer-Corbito killings

Michael Ray Aquino

Former police intelligence officer Michael Ray Aquino fled the country in 2001 after he was implicated in the Dacer-Corbito killings.

Publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, were abducted on Nov. 24, 2000, at an intersection in Makati City. Their charred remains were found in April 2001 in a creek in Cavite and identified by forensic experts from dental records and personal items.

Aquino, former chief of operations of the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (Paoctf), allegedly received orders from then Paoctf head, now Sen. Panfilo Lacson, to abduct the victims, according to coaccused and fellow Paoctf officer Cezar Mancao II.

In 2005, American authorities arrested Aquino in connection with an espionage case, where he was accused of illegally accepting classified US secret documents. Prosecutors alleged the documents were stolen as part of a plot to overthrow then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Aquino pleaded guilty in 2006 of possession of secret documents and was sentenced to a 76-month prison term, later reduced to time served.

He was extradited to the Philippines in June last year. Months later, he entered a “not guilty” plea to charges that he had something to do with the 2000 double murders.

Source: Inquirer Archives