The agonizing search for Harry Roque

Does the search for lawyer Harry Roque, the spokesperson of former president Rodrigo Duterte, feel like finding a needle in a haystack?

If Philippine authorities were truly looking for him with the assiduousness needed to successfully arrest a high-profile person, they should have been overseas by now on a global manhunt.

How Roque managed to elude authorities despite a standing warrant issued by the House of Representatives is puzzling, given that the Bureau of Immigration itself admitted that, being a well-known personality, his face is familiar to its agents assigned at every international airport and seaport of this archipelago.

The House issued the arrest warrant for Roque’s refusal to attend the quad committee hearings into the illegal activities of the Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), and his failure to submit key documents related to his assets, which increased dramatically in just two years.

The quad committee is investigating how Pogos, which employed mostly foreign nationals, orchestrated alleged killings, tortures, human trafficking, and cyber scams to fleece an unsuspecting public of their hard-earned money.

Who’s coddling him?

But Roque’s escape is now water under the bridge because he fled the country while authorities were obviously not looking. The more pressing challenge now is to immediately locate him, and key to that are his powerful connections, both local and foreign.

The search for Roque, if there is indeed a team tracking his whereabouts, has gone cold since the House served a warrant at his law firm on Sept. 13. Save for the House members peeved at him for ignoring their summons, the country has seemingly forgotten his absence until Nov. 29, when Roque popped up in a place where the authorities were not looking.

It is clear to Roque as a lawyer that he cannot fight all his battles under the current dispensation. But leaving the country with his wife, Mylah, was a mistake and only exacerbates his legal woes.

Calculated move.

Still, if there’s a battle that Roque is willing to fight, that will be on the legal front. He showed up at the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to have his counter-affidavit notarized for the qualified human trafficking case filed against him and his client, Cassandra Li Ong, among other respondents, by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Either it was a calculated move or a desperate act. By swearing to the contents of his affidavit before the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi, which is legally under Philippine jurisdiction, Roque appears to recognize the jurisdiction of our laws but not their full weight. But can one recognize authority without placing oneself under it? He has been hiding abroad, showing that he defies congressional subpoenas and arrest orders issued in pursuit of the truth.

Roque has availed of his right to answer the charge of “active participation” in human trafficking committed by the raided Lucky South 99, a Pogo hub in Porac, Pampanga. It was the same Pogo hub where documents bearing his signature were discovered. One such document was for “travel support” sought by his executive assistant, who applied for a Schengen visa to travel to Europe and Eastern European countries in 2023.

Although Roque has been the legal counsel for Whirlwind Corp., which owns the land where Lucky South 99 used to operate, he denies being involved in illegal Pogo operations.

Almost in the same breath, however, Roque refused to fully submit to Philippine jurisdiction by fleeing the country, much like other fugitives from justice. But by filing a counter-affidavit for a DOJ investigation while hiding from Congress and the Philippine National Police, isn’t he also denigrating the process?

“Waiting for instruction”

Parenthetically, is it worth asking whether the Philippine ambassador to the UAE, Alfonso Ferdinand Ver, promptly informed the Philippine government of Roque’s presence? A Cebu Daily News report said that as of Dec. 9, or 10 days after Roque appeared before the Philippine embassy in Dubai, Ver was still “waiting (for) instruction from Manila if they can use the House of Representatives’ arrest order against Harry Roque.”

Despite being in hiding in September, Roque denied being a fugitive. “Will I have myself arrested or not? Well, I believe that if Congress violates limits on its powers and becomes guilty of grave abuse of power and grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of jurisdiction, the order is illegal,” he said. (“Harry Roque told: ‘Flight is often an indication of guilt,’” 9/17/24)

To which Santa Rosa, Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez shot back: “If Mr. Roque had nothing to hide, he would face the committee.” Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, the quad committee chair, explained that Roque’s continuous avoidance of the hearings would only reinforce the belief that he is linked to the Pogos. “We are all subject to the rule of law. No one is above it, and no one can hide from it. Those who evade accountability are not serving the interests of justice, but their self-interest,” Barbers said.

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For comments: mubac@inquirer.com.ph