MEMBERS of two committees of the House of Representatives on Wednesday grilled Duterte administration spokesman lawyer Harry Roque about his alleged connection to illegal Philippine offshore gambling operators (POGOs).
The former spokesperson of former President Rodrigo Duterte was one of the resource persons of the committee on public order and safety chaired by Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez and the committee on games and amusement led by Cavite Rep. Antonio Ferrer.
Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel told Roque during the hearing that his name has been dragged in at least two recent cases involving suspected POGO operators.
He said one case was the raid by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and other law enforcement authorities on a house in Benguet in which two Chinese nationals and a female Chinese renter were arrested for alleged involvement in illegal gambling.
He said the second was the discovery and shutdown of a POGO hub in Porac, Pampanga.
Pimentel said the owner of the hub, a certain Cassandra Lee Ong, is a client of Roque, which the latter admitted.
He asked the former Duterte spokesperson if being linked to the two cases was enough ground for people to suspect that he was actually involved in illegal POGO activities and was not only doing his job as a lawyer and a property owner or investor.
“No, Sir, there is no basis for that,” the former Palace spokesman and former party-list congressman protested.
He said he has an interest in a corporation owning the Benguet house where the two Chinese nationals were arrested but that he did not know they were Chinese.
As for the Porac POGO hub case, Roque said he is the lawyer of Ong, with whom he has lost contact.
Pimentel asked PAOCC chief Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz if his task force could include Roque in its investigation of illegal POGOs considering that his name has been dragged in at least two cases.
Cruz said they could include the former Palace spokesman as a “person of interest, but the other agencies should give us the supporting documents.”
He admitted that they do not even have a copy of the certificate of land title showing ownership of the Benguet house they raided.
“But you should conduct your own due diligence. You are the investigator,” Pimentel told Cruz.
Pimentel also asked the two committees to issue a subpoena to Ong, who has not attended any of the panels’ three hearings despite repeated invitations.
Roque was later questioned on his phone calls and meetings last year with Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) officials on the grant of a gaming license to the Porac POGO hub owned by Ong.
The investigating committees also sought the assistance of the League of Cities of the Philippines and the League of Municipalities of the Philippines in padlocking 402 illegal POGO establishments.
Fernandez gave the two leagues a list of the 402, together with their locations and addresses, and their operators and incorporators.
“Let us help the PNP (Philippine National Police) close down these POGOs,” he said.
