MANILA Rep. Bienvenido Abante yesterday said the call of former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque for a people power to topple the administration is “treasonous.”
Abante is one of the chairmen of the four committees of the House of Representatives investigating the illegal operations of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), extrajudicial killings and illegal drug syndicates hounding the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
“To me, it might also be treasonous because he’s now calling for people power to topple down the present administration,” Abante told reporters. “That’s not right, don’t you think?
I mean, it’s one thing to be able to rally against the government, it is another thing to say, let us come together so we could be able to topple down this government,” he added.
Roque was earlier detained for 24 hours at the detention facility of the House for lying about his absence in a previous hearing of the quad committee. He said in a letter to the panel that he was scheduled to attend a court hearing in Manila last August 16, but court records showed that the hearing was held on August 15.
After his detention, he criticized the quad panel for allegedly wanting to suppress free speech.
He then called on political parties to assemble at the Edsa shrine every Friday to pressure President Marcos Jr. steps down.
“To Filipinos, every Friday until this movement gathers numbers, until we fill the entire Edsa, let’s meet here every Friday… We once removed a Marcos from power, and we celebrated that. And that’s the message that anytime now, the people will judge to remove Marcos Jr. if the government does not change,” he said.
Roque is being probed by the quad committee due to his possible involvement with POGO facilities, particularly the Lucky South 99 hub that was raided in Porac, Pampanga.
Another quad comm chair, Sta. Rosa Rep. Dan Fernandez warned Roque that he could be cited again in contempt by the joint panel for questioning its contempt powers.
“Well actually that’s contemptible and should one of the members of the committee tackle that issue, no one can prevent him or her from discussing it on the quad comm on the next hearing on Wednesday,” Fernandez said.
“When he questioned our right to cite resource persons for contempt, that is contemptible.
That’s why, well, it’s an issue that we have to discuss if ever somebody will raise it on the floor on Wednesday. But as I’ve said, for me, nobody paid attention to him, right? Because people know that we’re not doing this because of politics,” he added.
