MANILA, Philippines – Harry Roque, who is facing a criminal complaint for human trafficking related to an alleged scam farm in Pampanga, traveled from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to China, Senator Risa Hontiveros said on Tuesday, March 4.
“According to my sources, Harry Roque flew in to Shanghai from Dubai on December 8, 2024, stayed in Shanghai for just one day, and then flew out to the casino city of Macau. Sino kaya ang tumutulong sa kanya? (Who is helping him?),” Hontiveros said on Tuesday during a Senate hearing on Alice Guo and other people leaving the country despite being on a watchlist.
It was not certain if Roque is still in China. Representatives from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) could not answer Hontiveros during Tuesday’s hearing.
“We have information, but we don’t have validated proof [that he entered China],” said BI intelligence chief Fortunato Manahan. He also said they had a lead before that Roque tried to go to the United States from Japan but that he was “denied flight, denied check-in” in Japan, according to Manahan.
The sequence for Roque’s travel was unclear as of writing.
“Where, for God’s sake, is Harry Roque? Parang libre na lang siyang mag-post ng kung anu-ano sa social media na parang kinukutsa pa ang administrasyon at mga otoridad natin (He’s just free to post anything on social media poking fun at the administration and our authorities),” said Hontiveros.
Roque was put on the immigration lookout in August 2024. Police filed the criminal complaint for human trafficking against him in October that year, related to his lawyering for the real estate firm Whirlwind in Porac, Pampanga, the lessor of the alleged scam farm there. There’s also a congressional warrant against him after lawmakers scrutinized his lawyering for the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) there, and not just the lessor. However, there are no known court-issued warrants against him to this day.
There’s already a draft resolution on the trafficking complaint against him, said State Prosecutor Olivia Torrevillas. POGO actors without court-issued warrants leaving the Philippines has been an issue throughout this saga, putting into question why the DOJ does not ask the court for a precautionary hold departure order (PHDO), a mechanism available to prosecutors to secure flight-risk suspects who are not yet charged.
Roque is regularly livestreaming on his Facebook page, and last year, when the DOJ said he had subscribed to his affidavit in Abu Dhabi, Roque told reporters via Zoom he already left the emirate.
Roque was discovered to be in Abu Dhabi in the UAE when he had to subscribe to his affidavit at the Philippine embassy there — the affidavit was required so he can answer the trafficking complaint. But lawmakers had suspected he went to Dubai and just went to Abu Dhabi because the embassy is there. Tuesday’s hearing confirmed the Dubai destination for the first time.
“The last information we had on the Roque couple — the wife left Singapore, bound for Dubai, and there was sighting of Harry Roque in Dubai. There’s also information that they left sometime December, but the information after that, sorry Madam chair,” Manahan said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Who is, or was, in Dubai? Michael Yang, Rodrigo Duterte’s former economic adviser, for example. Lin Weixiong, Yang’s close business associate, also traveled there. Alice Guo’s Bamban business partner, Lin Baoying, who was convicted in Singapore for money laundering, has a property in Dubai too. Lin Baoying, a Chinese national, appears to have had a property in Macau too, which she sold and claimed was the sources of her deposits, according to a report on Channel News Asia.
That Roque supposedly went to China, particularly Shanghai and Macau, also happened under the radar.
The Bureau of Immigration claims Roque left the Philippines via unofficial channels, because they had no record of his departure.
The National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) has a theory that Roque used the backdoor of Tawi-Tawi to leave the Philippines, saying that Roque had a domestic flight from Zamboanga to Tawi-Tawi in the morning of September 2, 2024.
NICA Director Ferlu Silvio said that Mindanao has “porous borders,” and many ships sail back and forth Sabah to Philippines. In fact, Silvio said, Guo’s sister Shiela may have entered Kota Kinabalu first when they fled.
“After Tawi-Tawi, we no longer heard anything. I don’t want to confirm [that that’s what happened] but that’s one of the possibilities,” Silvio said, referring to Roque.
Silvio said they also had information that Roque went to Macau.
– Rappler.com