Harry Roque: Remulla has no right to make arrests in PH, Austria
Former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque appeared to mock Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, who earlier said he would personally arrest the former spokesperson over the human trafficking charges pending against him in a Pampanga court.
“The secretary of interior and local government, even in the Philippines, does not have the power to arrest … If in the Philippines a secretary of interior and local government does not have the power to arrest, how much more so in other countries?” Roque said in a video statement on Saturday.
Roque, a practicing lawyer in the Philippines, argued that no Philippine official or law enforcement officer can arrest him in Austria because that would be a violation of Austrian sovereignty and international law.
“If you don’t want me to have you arrested, don’t arrest me here in Austria. Anyway, I’m waiting for you here in Austria, let’s meet,” Roque said.
The former Palace spokesperson is believed to be in Austria and has been in Europe since the Angeles City Regional Trial Court issued warrants of arrest against him and 49 others in May 2025.
In the nonbailable offenses filed by the Department of Justice, Roque and the others were charged for conspiring to operate a facility in Porac, Pampanga, for kidnapping, illegal detention, torture and sex trafficking.
Missing corespondent
Of Roque’s corespondents in the Porac case, businesswoman Cassandra Li Ong, an authorized representative of Lucky South 99, also remains at large. Ong is believed to be the girlfriend of Wesley Guo, brother of former Bamban, Tarlac, Mayor Alice Guo.
Details of the charges remain unavailable pending a court hearing, but government prosecutors claimed Roque lawyered for Whirlwind Corporation and lobbied for the renewal of Lucky South 99’s gaming license, the local companies linked to the Porac facility.
Roque denied the charges from Europe and claimed the charges were a “travesty of justice” and a form of “political persecution,” prompting him to seek asylum in the Netherlands.
Filipino Dutch writer Joel Vega said that he started an online petition that gathered 21,000 signatures against Roque’s asylum petition and that the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service rejected the petition and transferred his case to Germany, which supposedly issued his Schengen visa.
