THE quad committee of the House of Representatives on Monday night lifted its contempt orders against former presidential spokesman Harry Roque, his wife Mylah, former presidential adviser Michael Yang and other personalities before it concluded its long-drawn-out investigation into the links between Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs), the illegal drugs trade and alleged extrajudicial killings (EJKs) under the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs.
The joint panel, which is composed of the Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order and Safety, Human Rights, and Public Accounts, also lifted the contempt orders against Police Col. Hector Grijaldo and Senior Police Officer 4 Arthur Narsolis.
The contempt and arrest orders were lifted on the motion of Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano, a co-chair of the joint panel who chairs the Public Accounts panel.
The panel’s findings have been consolidated into a final report for legislative recommendations and prosecutorial action, which include its earlier recommendation for the filing of a complaint for “crimes against humanity” against former president Rodrigo Duterte for the summary executions committed under the drug war.
Roque, who is applying for political asylum in the Netherlands as he faces an arrest warrant for qualified human trafficking, was cited in contempt twice last year — first for allegedly giving false testimony in relation to his connections to Cassandra Ong, a representative of Lucky South 99, a POGO in Porac, Pampanga, for which he was briefly detained.
Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco has told the House panel that Roque lobbied for Lucky South 99 in July 2023 when he accompanied Ong during a visit to his office to discuss the firm’s unpaid arrears amounting to $500,000.
Later, Roque was cited again in contempt after he refused to submit documents related to POGO operations.
The joint committee has ordered Roque to submit his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth from 2016 to 2022, copies of the documents related to the transfer of Biancham’s shareholdings, and his 2018 income tax return, which was filed in 2019.
The former Duterte spokesman’s name was linked to POGOs after a house in Tuba, Benguet, reportedly owned by him, was raided, resulting in the arrest of two Chinese linked to an illegal POGO operation in Bamban, Tarlac.
A practicing lawyer, Roque has admitted to having an “interest” in the corporation that owns the Benguet property.
He has since gone into hiding and surfaced only after Duterte was surrendered to the International Criminal Court (ICC) last March.
Roque’s wife, Mylah, was also summoned to the House hearings. The panel wanted to question the couple about their business Biancham Holdings and Trading Inc., which was founded in 2014.
It was found that initially, that the Roque couple each held 49.9 percent of the company’s shares until the majority was transferred to lawyer Percival Ortega, who now holds 99.99 percent.
Biancham’s audited financial report, however, showed that the company’s cash balance surged from a measly P125,300 in 2014 to P67.7 million in 2018, during the peak of POGOs under the Duterte administration.
Yang, a Chinese who once served as economic adviser during the Duterte administration, was initially subpoenaed last year in connection to the P3.6-billion drug bust in Mexico, Pampanga and his alleged involvement in illegal POGO operations.
The businessman was linked to Empire 999 Realty Corp. and several Chinese-led enterprises allegedly used as fronts for illegal drugs trafficking.
Lawmakers have said the arrest of Yang’s brother Tony in Cagayan de Oro City last year exposed warehouses allegedly used for both POGO and drug smuggling, prompting them to describe the former Duterte adviser as the “central figure” in a syndicate involved in both POGO and narcotics operations.
Grijaldo, who has been detained the House since December 2024 for repeatedly ignoring subpoenas, was already ordered release while Narsolis, who allegedly ordered two hitmen to kill three Chinese drug suspects at the Davao Penal and Prison Farm in August 2016, remains at large.
Witnesses earlier claimed Narsolis carried out the operation on orders of retired police colonel and former PCSO general manager Royina Garma, who according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), remains in detention at an immigration facility in the United States after an expedited removal order was issued upon her arrival in San Francisco late last year.
“This is confirmed based on the latest information from our Philippine Consulate General in Houston,” DFA Passport Division Assistant Director Charlie Florian Prenicolas told the joint panel. “Ms. Garma remains in detention at the South Louisiana Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center because detainees are unable to receive calls per U.S. regulations.”
The DFA official told the panel that the Philippine consulate had already reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and “the consulate was given the assurance that the contact information of the consulate had been relayed to Ms. Garma.”
