We have been down this road before, and your statement is to be polite wrong.
.
There was obvious communication between Mac Centre and local radar control for the approval for the radar controlled let down
He was offered a radar monitored let down, he was never identified by the radar, what radar operator would authorise a let down if he did not know where the aircraft was???
He elected a VMC descent, and that was approved. It was approved because by so doing he was taking on his own responsibility for terrain and traffic separation.
hence the clearance to descend maintaining VMC and keep them advised of their altitude
There was no clearance issued, it was an approval and it was approved as stated above, VMC by definition is to maintain own terrain clearance and traffic separation.
megan,
It did, but only very briefly.
How was this established?