House quad com won’t take Roque’s tirades sitting down – Barbers

Former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque (PHOTO FROM THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FB PAGE)

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives quad committee will not take former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque’s tirades against them lightly, Surigao del Norte 2nd Dist. Rep. Ace Barbers said in an online interview on Friday.

Roque earlier said in his Facebook post on Thursday that he would no longer attend “kangaroo hearings” of the House panel.

“When he was cornered and we asked for documents from him, that’s when he started saying a lot of things outside Congress, but when he was inside, he was very submissive… He volunteered to submit documents that we asked from him,” Barbers said in Filipino.

“Now, he’s invoking a lot of whatever he is saying. In his pronouncements on social media, he is making a lot of tirades against this quad com. We will not take it sitting down,” he added.

The panel, which is currently investigating the issues related to the Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), on Thursday, cited Roque again for contempt and ordered his detention in the House of Representatives anew after he failed to comply with the lower chamber’s subpoena.

The former presidential spokesperson has been asked to submit the following:

• his statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth from 2016 to 2022
• his income tax returns and those of his wife Maila from 2014 to 2022
• their medical certificates
• the extrajudicial settlement of his estate, including tax returns of his late aunt
• the deed of sale with tax returns and transfer of property of the 1.8-hectare property in Multinational Village, Parañaque, which his family sold

Further, Barbers said: “He [Roque] can say everything he wants to say, but the fact remains that this investigation, he’s very important. He’s really material to the the illegal Pogo under investigation. Why? Because there’s overwhelming circumstantial evidence that was established by the committee during the time he was in attendance.”

In Roque’s Facebook post, he slammed the panel’s move as “political harassment” and power-tripping.

“I no longer expect truth and fairness from a Kangaroo Court called QuadCom. I preffered to not face the kangaroo hearings of QuadCom. You are just wasting the public’s funds on these kangaroo hearings that will not even prove anything,” Roque said, partly in Filpino, in one post.

Roque has been under scrutiny for his alleged ties to Pogos after his bank documents were found in a raided Pogo hub in Pampanga.

Last July, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission revealed that Roque served as the legal counsel of Lucky South 99 Corp.

The former presidential spokesperson repeatedly denied his links to Pogos.