SENATE deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros yesterday slammed the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for its failure to locate the whereabouts of former presidential spokesman Harry Roque and his wife Myla who left the country undetected last year.
Hontiveros said that by now, the BI should have already determined who facilitated the escape of Roque, who has a warrant of arrest issued by the House of Representatives for his refusal to attend the quad committee hearings on the illegal activities of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) and for failing to submit subpoenaed documents of his business and financial records.
Roque has also been placed in the immigration lookout bulletin after he was linked to the human trafficking cases filed against Cassandra Li Ong and other POGO bosses who have been charged in relation to the illegal activities of a POGO hub in Porac, Pampanga.
“Where, for God’s sake, is Harry Roque? He is freely posting just about anything on social media taunting the administration while avoiding arrest for charges of human trafficking? Who could have been helping him?” Hontiveros said in Filipino and English as the Senate subcommittee on justice and human rights conducted a hearing on the proposed cancellation of the Filipino citizenship of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo.
The BI had earlier said Harry Roque left the country through illegal means.
Hontiveros said she received information that the Roque couple flew from Dubai to Shanghai on December 8 last year and “stayed in Shanghai for one just one day” then flew to Macau.
BI chief of intelligence Fortunato Manahan said they have received information that aside from Dubai, Shanghai, and Macau, the Roques also went to Japan where they supposedly tried to sneak out to the US but were denied to board the plane.
Manahan said the BI got information that Roque and his wife left Singapore for Dubai.
“There’s also sightings of Harry Roque in Dubai. There’s also information that they left the city sometime in December,” he said.
“We had information that he went to Japan and he wasn’t able to go, he was supposedly bound for US but was denied flight at check-in,” he also said.
He said, though, that they have no additional information on the Roques’ whereabouts as Japan authorities were not able to hold or detain Roque.
“There were no holdings done by the Japan police and immigration. After that, we no longer had any information,” he said.
Manahan said they failed to validate the information that the Roques went to Shanghai and Macau in China.
National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) director Ferlu Silvio said that based on their investigation, Harry Roque was last monitored in Zamboanga City, where he took a commercial flight to Tawi-Tawi on board flight PR-2485 on September 2 last year.
He said they lost rack of Roque after the Tawi-Tawi trip.
He said it was possible that he took the same route that Guo took when she escaped to Indonesia before flying to his other destinations.
