MANILA – The House of Representatives’ quad committee has once again cited former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque for contempt for his failure to comply with a subpoena to submit key documents.
Cong. Jonathan Flores has filed a motion to detain Roque due to his refusal to provide essential documents such as business records, tax returns, and statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth or SALN.
The documents being requested are part of the panel’s investigation into the rapid increase in assets of Roque’s company, Biancham Holdings and Trading, which saw its value rise from P125,000 in 2014 to P67.7 million by 2018.
“I move that we hold Harry Roque in detention until he submits the documents or until the quad committee is dissolved,” Flores said during the quad panel’s fifth joint public hearing on Thursday.
However, as a courtesy to Roque for being a former member of the Lower House, he will be detained at the House detention facility instead of Bicutan City Jail.
Cong. Gerville Luistro, for her part, stated that Roque’s refusal to provide proof of the legitimate source for Biancham’s financial growth would be enough to conclude that he has links to the illegal POGO (Philippine offshore gaming operations).
“If Roque cannot provide a legal and valid source for the sudden increase of assets of Biancham then there’s a reasonable ground to believe that indeed he is connected with POGO operations and that this money came from POGO operations,” Luistro said.
Roque stated during the previous hearing that the increase in his assets stemmed from the sale of his family’s 1.8-hectare property in Parañaque City.
This is the second time that Roque was cited for contempt by the committee after being detained before for lying about his absence during the panel’s previous investigation./PN
