“What goes around comes around.”

This was what Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert “Ace” Barbers said in describing the path that lawyer and former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, now again facing detention for defying a subpoena of the House of Representatives’ quad committee, appears to be treading.

Barbers, who heads the quad committee looking into, among others, the alleged irregularities of Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) during the previous administration, recalled to CoverStory.ph on Saturday night how Roque as spokesperson of President Rodrigo Duterte would warn those being probed that if they did nothing bad, then they had nothing to fear and should face accusations.

“Now that applies to you,” the lawmaker said of Roque, who is facing a second but longer detention period in the House for his failure to submit documents that would show he had not benefited from a Pogo being investigated for illegal activities in Porac, Pampanga.

The quad committee again cited Roque in contempt after he failed to produce the documents at a hearing on Sept. 12. It was the third hearing that he had skipped. He was first cited in contempt by the quad committee and held for 24 hours in the House detention facility after he was deemed to have lied about his whereabouts during the second hearing last Aug. 16.

As of Sunday morning, Roque had yet to be served the arrest warrant issued by the quad committee.
The panel, made up of four House committees, is conducting an inquiry into the possible correlations among illegal Pogos, the trade in illegal drugs, and extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration.

Increased assets

So far, Roque has been asked to explain the surge of his wealth during the boom period of Pogos. Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro raised questions on the sudden increase of Roque’s assets—from P125,000 before 2016 to P125 million in 2018.

Roque had promised the quad committee to produce documents to show that his family sold a 1.8-hectare property of his late aunt, the proceeds of which supposedly went to his family-owned company and subsidiaries. But he reneged on that commitment and instead filed a motion to stop the committee from getting the documents; the committee in turn threw out his motion during its Sept.12 hearing.

Roque has been linked to Lucky South 99, the raided Pogo hub in Porac where documents with his signature were found. He has repeatedly denied any connection with Lucky South 99.

From the hearings, Roque was found to have accompanied Katherine Cassandra Li Ong, a stakeholder of Whirlwind Corp., to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., for the settlement of unpaid dues for a Pogo license.

Ong, along with Sheila Guo, the supposed sister of ex-Mayor Alice Guo of Bamban, Tarlac, are currently detained in the House after they were ordered arrested by the quad committee. Ong and the Guos fled the Philippines in July but they have since been separately arrested in Indonesia and transported back to the country.

Alice Guo, said to be a Chinese national, is being investigated for her links to an illegal Pogo in Bamban. She is under court detention in Valenzuela City.

‘Witch hunt’

Roque has publicly described the quad committee as a “kangaroo court” engaged in a “witch hunt,” angering its members.

Barbers recalled to CoverStory.ph that Roque, then a party-list congressman, manifested during the 2016 House investigation of allegations that then senator Leila de Lima had benefited from the illegal drug trade, that he was taking exception to her statement that the inquiry was a “kangaroo court.”

At that time, De Lima had refused to attend the House hearings, which she likened to “the Salem witch trials” in the United States, with her being “burn[ed]at the stake.”

“And now [Roque] is saying the same thing, that the quad committee is a kangaroo court. What’s the saying? What goes around, comes around,” Barbers said.
According to the lawmaker, the problem with Roque is that he is badmouthing the quad committee after attending its hearings.

“This is a request [to Roque] from a former colleague. He should not insult the panel. He can do it in front of us; that’s our challenge to him,” Barbers said, adding that the committee would act if he alleges that it is violating his rights.

Roque filed a motion to squash the panel subpoena ordering him to submit his statements of assets and liabilities from 2016 to 2022, his and his wife Maila’s income tax returns from 2014 to 2022 and their respective medical certificates, the extrajudicial settlement of the estate including the tax returns of his late aunt, and the deed of sale with tax returns and transfer of property of the 1.8-hectare property in Multinational Village, Paranaque City, that his family had supposedly sold.

Next hearing set

The quad committee is hoping that Roque would be served the arrest warrant before its next hearing set for Wednesday or Thursday.

Barbers said Roque’s law firm in Makati City had refused to accept the arrest warrant brought by the House sergeant at arms who waited until the office closed its doors on Friday night. He said he had not yet received any feedback from the House sergeant at arms, whose next stop, he said, should be Roque’s residence.

The lawmaker said the arrest order also stipulates that Roque be placed in the Bureau of Immigration’s lookout bulletin, “so we will know if he will leave the country.”
Asked what would happen if Roque remains elusive, Barbers said law enforcement authorities would have to look for him “until they locate him, and bring him to the House detention facility.”

Barbers said Roque’s no-show at the House would make things look bad for him because “this is his opportunity to clarify and answer the allegations against him.”

Should Roque fail to show up, Barbers said, “there is a saying in law—flight is indicative of guilt.”

“Roque should produce those documents; otherwise, there might be a different conclusion by the committee members. He promised to show them to us,” Barbers also said.

On how long the quad committee plans to conduct its inquiry, he said it has already passed the 50% mark of the issues to be substantiated after five hearings. “We want to complete whatever needs to be substantiated so we can do our committee report,” he said.