THE long arm of the law finally caught up with one of the principal accused in the 2000 brutal double murder of prominent publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

Fugitive former Police Senior Supt. Michael Ray Aquino is now in the custody of the New York Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the erstwhile Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Aquino fled to the United States in July 2001 after he was charged with other police officials in the kidnapping and slaying of Dacer and Corbito.

On March 7, Aquino was arrested by ICE-NY for immigration status violation during a routine immigration check as he applied for work as a nursing aide or caregiver. Can you imagine a suspected murderer working as a caregiver?

Prior to his arrest, he has been hiding in New York, possibly working odd jobs, and keeping a very low profile in the large Filipino community in the metro area.

Now he is awaiting deportation to the Philippines to face the music. Inexplicably, there is “no valid warrant of arrest” against the fugitive.

Why so? It appears that the Philippine Supreme Court is biding its time until it can rule on a pending petition filed by some of his co-accused. There’s the rub: Even a celebrated case like Dacer’s can be mired in legal hocus-pocus.

And to think that even President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a longtime friend of Dacer, has brought presidential pressure to bring the perpetrators to justice. As a result, the National Bureau of Investigation has linked up with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in tracking down and nailing Aquino.

Still another major quarry of the NBI and FBI, Aquino’s colleague, former Police Senior Supt. Cesar Mancao III, is on the loose. He is believed to be illegally working as a security guard in San Francisco.

What is more unnerving are reports that Mancao sneaked back into the Philippines shortly after the May 2004 presidential election, presumably to seek an “arrangement” with the Arroyo administration.

And when he did not reach first base, he “conveniently” returned to the U.S. to avoid prosecution in Manila.

But why was he not promptly arrested and locked up when he surfaced and talked to people with access to authorities?

Are these people scared out of their wits that he might spill the beans and drag them down with him?

Certainly, Philippine justice moves in a snail pace. There are no easy answers to nagging questions.