By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
For all the breathless speculation about the rumored arrest of Harry Roque in the Netherlands — a story still unconfirmed as of this writing — one thing is clear: the government is fully within its legal and constitutional authority to go after him.
A Philippine court issued an arrest warrant. This is something not borne out of a press release, a deep-fake video incriminating him, or conjured from political foes now in power.
The Angeles City Regional Trial Court (RTC) actually found probable cause for the non-bailable charge of qualified human trafficking against Roque in the investigation of the Lucky South 99 POGO hub in Porac, Pampanga. That POGO operation is bad news, humming around allegations of torture, kidnapping, and sex trafficking of foreign — mostly illegal Chinese — workers.
Additionally, a separate arrest warrant for contempt of Congress was issued against him, specifically for repeatedly snubbing hearings and failing to submit the required SALNs during the POGO probe. These all led to the Pasig RTC cancelling his passport.
By all indications, these are routine actions under a functioning legal system where you find a man with such warrants tracked down, literally, to the ends of the earth.
So, even if we are working on widely spread assumptions here, which the government still refuses to confirm as of this writing, the path to securing Roque’s arrest is well within the bounds of the law. If the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission and the Department of Justice (DOJ) asked Interpol to issue a Red Notice, and if Dutch authorities truly moved to intercept him — whether he tried diverting to Amsterdam or boarding a flight to Vienna, as rumors have it — then that is simply the long arm of the law doing its work.
Kudos to the Marcos administration for proving, in this case, that the Philippine judicial process is alive and kicking. But celebrating it also spells a double-edged sword for the President.
Why? Because Roque is no ordinary accused. He is a political figure, a Duterte ally, a former presidential spokesperson who has been taking aim at the Marcos administration and vocally discrediting it. Heck, he wants VP Sara Duterte to be president now!
Again, there’s nothing wrong about arresting him. But what does it tell the public if this government can show global prosecutorial resolve in chasing a political critic continents away, but with timid attempts to get the disgraced central figure in the trillion-peso flood control scandal, Congressman Zaldy Co, back home to face the music.
Why not have the long arms of the law reach and handcuff Co, who has implicated former Speaker Martin Romualdez – the President’s cousin – in this alleged plunder and public-fund manipulation that has struck at the core of national interest and is detrimental to the economy?
Let me emphasize, I shed no tears for the fate of Harry Roque — even with the misfortune of having to share the same last name with him. But by Sunday, when sick-and-tired Pinoys fill the streets for the second Trillion Peso March against corruption in this government, Roque’s arrest rings hollow.
Malacañang cannot offer Roque as a sacrificial lamb on the table because the angry public wants the biggest names in this current administration dragged to jail. The President cannot pretend he does not know what the public now cries for.
And even if Ombudsman Crispin Remulla does all the posturing to get the likes of DPWH regional officials marching into detention cells, the fact is, they are not the main targets people want removed from government and hauled off to jail. The Palace is still shooting itself in the foot. Aim higher, Mr. President. Go for the headshot and end this flood-control mess quickly so we can all go back to building this nation and the economy.
* * *
SHORT BURSTS. For comments or reactions, email firingline@ymail.com or tweet @Side_View via X app (formerly Twitter). Read current and past issues of this column at https://www.thephilbiznews.com