Michael Ray Aquino now a jailbird after 10 years on the lam

Michael Ray Aquino suspect of Dacer Corbito double murder case arrives at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 from Los Angeles via Hawaii. PHILIPPINE DAILY INQURER / Rodel Rotoni

MANILA, Philippines—Former Police Officer Michael Ray Aquino will share a cell with 20 other inmates at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the NBI said at a press conference following Aquino’s arrival, and subsequent booking at the NBI  headquarters Sunday morning.

Aquino was brought to the NBI at 7:11 a.m. accompanied by about a hundred agents in an 11-vehicle convoy.

NBI Foreign Liaison Division Chief Head Agent Atty. Claro De Castro said Aquino was processed and booked (finger-printed and given a medical exam) at the NBI, which will serve as his temporary detention facility.

De Castro said they will inform the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18 on Monday that Aquino is already in their custody. It is still not clear, he acknowledged,  how long Aquino will stay at the NBI.

Aquino, who is facing charges for the killing of local public relations bigwig Salvador “Bubby” Dacer, and his driver, Emanuel Corbito more than ten years ago, arrived handcuffed and under guard at 6:40 a.m. at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2.

“There will be no special treatment for Aquino,” NBI Spokesman Cecilio Zamora Jr. declared.

“He will be sharing the cell with 20 other inmates,” Zamora said adding that there will be an electric fan, and he will have his own bed.

He said it will depend upon the court to determine where Aquino will stay.

“Without orders from the court (that he be taken to the Manila City Jail), then he will stay here with us,” Zamora said.

Lawyers of former Police officer Michael Ray Aquino will ask the Manila City Regional Trial Court Branch 18 on Monday to allow him to stay at the National Bureau of Investigation’s detention facility.

Atty. Joel Bretana told reporters at the NBI that Aquino will be safer at the NBI instead of the Manila City Jail.

Manila City Jail is the nearest detention facility to the court.

Earlier, when he arrived at the NAIA terminal 2,  Aquino cleared former President Joseph Estrada and Senator Panfilo Lacson on the deaths of Dacer, and Corbito.

“Gusto ko pong malaman ng sambayanang Pilipino na wala pong utos sa akin si President Joseph Ejercito Estrada o si Senator Panfilo M. Lacson (I’d like to tell the Filipino people that there was no order from President Joseph Estrada or Senator Panfilo Lacson) to kidnap, harm and/or murder anyone specifically Mr. Salvador Dacer and Mr. Emmanuel Corbito,” Aquino said in a statement after he arrived here Sunday morning.

Lacson was tagged as the one who orchestrated the death of Dacer while Estrada was implicated in the killings based on the testimony of another former police officer, Cezar Mancao, who said a certain “Bigote” as the mastermind.

Aquino said he is ready to face his accusers, and prove his innocence.

“I sincerely believe that this is my opportunity to clear my name, prove my innocence and finally put to rest all speculations about me,” Aquino said.

The former senior superintendent of the defunct Presidential Anti Organized Crime Task Force, arrived from Los Angeles with a stopover at Honolulu via Philippine Airlines flight PR 103. The flight was supposed to arrive at 6:05 a.m. but was delayed by 40 minutes.

Wearing a pale shirt, black jacket and cream slacks, Aquino was seen descending the escalator of the NAIA 2 arrival area near the Presidential Lounge at around 7:16 a.m.

Aquino was flanked by five agents of the National Bureau of Investigation, and by de Castro who had fetched him from the United States early this week.

No longer a fugitive,  Aquino was handcuffed though the cuffs were covered by a brown jacket. He did not wear any bullet-proof vest when he arrived.

He smiled as he descended the escalator, pausing to look at his feet, and even raised his hands in the air as if to greet someone.

Aquino did not speak to the media waiting for him at the NAIA 2 arrival area near the immigration desks. But at one point, Inquirer photographer Jess Yuson snapped a shot of the former police official pouting.

Also present to supervise Aquino’s arrival were Manila International Airport Authority assistant general manager for security and emergency services Vicente Guerzon and Alger Tan, chief of the Airport Police Department.

Only the NAIA’s in-house media  or accredited reporters regularly covering the beat were allowed to go inside the NAIA 2 up to past the immigration desk.

But airport security cordoned off at least three meters of space away from the Presidential Lounge at the north wing lobby, to bar reporters from entering the restricted area.

Other reporters and crew who were not allowed access to the lobby had to make do with covering Aquino’s arrival from vantage points outside the terminal.