MANILA, Philippines – The House quad committee investigating illegal Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) on Thursday, September 12, ordered to detain former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque over contempt charges due to his non-compliance to the panel’s subpoena.

“There is a motion to detain Atty. Harry Roque at the House of Representatives detention facility. This was duly seconded, any objection, no objection, the motion is approved,” said the committee chairperson, Surigao del Norte 2nd District Representative Ace Barbers.

The committee approved the motion of Bukidnon 2nd District Representative Jonathan Keith Flores to detain Roque at the lower house premises “out of deference for a former member” of Congress, overruling the motion of Manila 6th District Representative Bienvenido Abante to detain him at a regular detention cell in Bicutan.

Roque was detained at the House for 24 hours in August, but this time, when is he taken into custody, he will be detained until the POGO hearings terminate, or until he complies with the subpoena, according to Barbers. There is already an immigration lookout on Roque, although this lookout cannot prohibit his overseas travel.

Rappler has reached out to Roque for his statement, or plans. We will update this story once he responds.

This second contempt order stemmed from Roque’s non-compliance to the committee’s subpoena on documents pertaining to his properties, and Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth. Roque has filed a motion to quash the subpoena, which was already denied in the last hearing, but he submitted a fresh motion on Thursday.

This prompted Flores to move for a second contempt, which was quickly approved.

The committee wants to get copies of Roque’s SALNs, documents related to his family firm Biancham, a subsidiary in Benguet called PH2, and a deed of sale for a Parañaque property which Roque previously said was the source of his wealth.

“As we investigate Biancham, we found out the sudden increase of his assets in 2018, coming from P125,000 before 2016 — in 2018 the current assets of Biancham rose to P125 million,” said Batangas 2nd District Representative Gerville Luistro.

“There is a question on the source of the money of Biancham Corporation, which belongs to Atty. Harry Roque. If he will not be able to prove the legal and valid source of this sudden increase of assets of Biancham, then there is reasonable ground to believe that indeed he is connected with POGO operations, and this money possibly came from POGO operations,” said Luistro.

Thursday’s hearing was the second snubbed by Roque.

Roque is related to the POGO controversy for helping Cassandra Ong set up meetings with Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor) initially in relation to Lucky South 99’s arrears with Pagcor totaling $500,000. Later, he helped follow up the Porac, Pampanga POGO’s bid to renew its gaming license which was rejected by Pagcor. Roque has admitted, on record, to being lawyer for Whirlwind, the company that is leasing its Porac compound to Lucky South 99.

Ong is the secretary/treasurer of Whirlwind, but she admitted to transacting with Pagcor on behalf of Lucky South 99.

Ong was not expected to appear before the House quad committee on Thursday, as the panel said they would focus on the extrajudicial killings/drug war part of the investigation. But Sta. Rosa Lone District Representative Dan Fernandez warned Ong’s lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, over the latter’s statement that he will also cite the committee in contempt of court.

Topacio had filed with the Supreme Court a petition seeking to compel the quad committee to respect Ong’s right to remain silent the next time she appears in the hearing.

“We are guaranteed the right to give information to public, this must be recognized. This is very [offensive],” said Fernandez.

“The committee is bound to take an action [on Topacio’s statements], but [we] will defer that for the moment so we can continue with the committee hearing proper,” said Barbers. – Rappler.com