The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said Tuesday that it is too early to make preparations to fetch former police Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino from the United States (US) because he can still oppose a US court’s extradition order.

Lawyer Claro de Castro, chief of the NBI Interpol, said the NBI has to wait for an order from the Department of Justice (DoJ) directing the bureau to implement the extradition before making preparations.

“We don’t have action yet. It is too early because Aquino can still appeal the ruling. It is his right to appeal or exhaust legal remedies available to him,” De Castro said.

“The extradition is in the level between the US and Philippine Justice Departments. We will wait for the official order of the Philippine DoJ,” he said.

Mark A. Berman, the lawyer of Aquino, can still file a motion for reconsideration or go directly to the US Court of Appeals of the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to appeal the adverse ruling his client got from Judge Esther Salas of the United States District Court of New Jersey in Newark last Thursday.

Salas ordered the extradition of Aquino after establishing probable cause that he was involved in the double murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito in 2000.

Berman said they are considering their options on Salas’ decision.

The lawyer, who also assisted Aquino in the spying case that earned him more than six years in prison before the same US District Court of New Jersey, however, did not file a motion for reconsideration to shorten Aquino’s sentence.

Instead, Berman’s elevated Aquino’s case of “unlawfully possessing secret US government documents” before the US Courts of Appeals of the Third Circuit, where he got a favorable ruling for Aquino when his sentence was cut in half that was equivalent to time served.