House panel orders Roque wife’s arrest after snubbing probe

Harry Roque and his wife Mylah Roque. Photo from Harry Roque’s Facebook page.

The House quad committee on Friday ordered the arrest of Mylah Roque, wife of former Palace spokesperson Harry Roque who is now in hiding, after she snubbed for the third time its invitation for her to attend its inquiry into illegal activities linked to Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos).

Mylah, a former broadcast journalist, was summoned by the special legislative committee after authorities discovered that she had signed the lease agreement on a house in Baguio City that a Chinese, who was suspected to be behind the raided Pogo hub in Bamban, Tarlac, had rented.

Due process given

Abang Lingkod Rep. Joseph Paduano, chair of the House public accounts committee, said they had given Mylah enough opportunity to answer the allegations linking her and their family-owned company, Biancham Holdings, to another Pogo complex raided by the government in Porac, Pampanga.

“We have given [Mylah] due process with regard to her presence in the hearing. I move to cite [her] in contempt,” Paduano said during the eighth hearing of the House quad committee composed of the committees on dangerous drugs, on public order and safety, on human rights and on public accounts.

Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop, vice chair of the House dangerous drugs committee, asked for the issuance of an arrest warrant against Mylah, also a former trustee of the Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-Ibig Fund.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, who chairs the House quad panel, approved Acop’s motion since no legislators raised an objection.

‘Abusive’

In a statement she issued on Sept. 21, Mylah described Barbers as an “abusive individual” for allegedly taking advantage of his legislative immunity from libel when he accused her of being an incorporator of Lucky South 99 Outsourcing Inc., the company that operated the Porac Pogo.

Roque’s wife claimed that she flew to Singapore to undergo a medical procedure.

According to her, Barbers’ “malicious interpretation” of her predicament “proves why his panel never accepted any of my medical certificates, not just from my longtime doctor but even hospital records.”

Required documents

“And I traveled because I have a right to travel as guaranteed by the Constitution,” Mylah said.

Roque, a lawyer, was ordered arrested by the quad committee last month for his refusal to submit financial documents, including his tax filings and statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.

He had backpedaled on his earlier promise to furnish the quad committee with the documents, which the legislators claimed would show his family’s connection with Lucky South.

Roque then turned to the Supreme Court for judicial intervention, but the high tribunal thumbed down his petition for a writ of amparo.