“It only means that we have to begin the extradition proceedings being requested. We have a process to be followed and this has been done many times in the past,” Aguirre said in a text message to INQUIRER.net.
The US government is requesting the Philippine government to hand over Dr. Russel Salic, whom it accuses of funding terror attacks in New York.
According to US authorities, they disrupted a plot by Salic and two ISIS followers to carry out terrorist attacks in New York City, “including concert venues, subway stations and Times Square in the summer of 2016.”
READ: US seeks extradition of PH doctor linked to New York terror plot
Asked what he would do if the extradition was approved while Salic still had a pending case in the Philippines, Aguirre said, “It depends.”
The justice secretary said Salic was under the custody of National Bureau of Investigation.
An orthopedic surgeon, Salic was charged in a foiled Manhattan terror plot was arrested earlier this year for the ISIS-linked abduction and beheadings of two Filipino workers in Marawi City.
One of the defendants, Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, was arrested after travelling from Canada to New Jersey in May 2016 to stage the attacks, U.S. authorities said. An American suspect, Talha Haroon, was arrested in Pakistan last year.