Former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque has admitted that his life is currently in tatters and that this was the price to pay for being loyal to the Duterte family.
“Ako nasira ang buhay ko, ako ay persecuted, hindi naman sa aking kagagawan kundi sa pinatunayan ko nang loyalty sa mga Duterte,” said Roque in a recent video message posted in his social media page.
(My life has been ruined, I am persecuted, not because of my own doing but because I have proven my loyalty to the Dutertes.)
But Roque said he had no regrets with what he has done. “Wag po kayoing mag-alala; okay lang po si Harry Roque.” (Do not worry for me; Harry Roque is okay.)
Roque said that he is coping with his status as asylum seeker in The Netherlands although he admitted experiencing pain each time he would miss his children in the Philippines.
Based on news accounts, Roque fled the country sometime in September last year after the Quad Committee of the House of Representatives cited him in contempt and ordered his arrest over his failure to submit documents that could justify his wealth.
The House Quad Committee was then investigating Roque’s link to the illegal activities of certain Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO). The Department of Justice (DOJ) is also probing the former Palace official for qualified human trafficking attributed to POGOs.
The lawyer was later traced by Philippine authorities in Dubai and would occasionally appear in his social media vlogs mostly attacking the Marcos administration and defending the Dutertes from allegations of wrongdoing while in office.
When former president Rodrigo Duterte was brought to the International Criminal Court (ICC) detention facility in The Hague early last March, Roque surprised pundits when he showed up in the Dutch city and announced his readiness to serve as one of the lawyers for his former principal.
Roque, however, was not included in Duterte’s defense team although he chose to stay in Amsterdam as an asylum seeker, a status that he could keep for at least a year.
The legal woes of Roque took a turn for the worse when a fellow vlogger testified in a House hearing early this April that the former Duterte mouthpiece was allegedly responsible for the spread of a video meant to project President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as a user of illegal drugs.
Vlogger Vicente Bencalo “Pebbles” Cunanan, who branded the video as fake, said its spread was meant to bring down the Marcos administration.
Acting on Cunanan’s testimony, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed inciting to sedition charges against Roque. Also charged for conspiring with Roque in the spread of the damaging video was US based vlogger Claire Contreras, known in social media as “Maharlika.”
“Through open-source digital investigation, supported by video forensics and authenticated evidence, the NBI traced its propagation, linked its content to inciting language during rallies and livestreams, and assessed public admissions of ownership and intent by the involved parties,” said NBI Director Jaime Santiago in his letter-complaint to the justice department.
In a video message on April 19, Roque dismissed the charges.
Roque said the intention in posting the video was not to urge the people to rise up against the government but to ask the President if he is still in the right frame of mind to lead the country due to his alleged drug use.
He stressed this is considered privileged communication because President Marcos is a sitting public official.
“Yung pagpapakita ng video ay isang tanong: Ikaw ba, Mr. President, ikaw ba ay nasa tamang pag-iisip? Dahil kung di ka nasa tamang pag-iisip, paano ka makapagbibigay ng solusyon sa problema ng bayan,” Roque stated.
(The showing of the video was a question: Mr. President, are you in the right state of mind? Because if you’re not in the right state of mind, how can you provide solutions to the country’s problems?)