{"id":777024207,"date":"2025-03-18T08:59:44","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T11:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777024207"},"modified":"2026-04-22T00:43:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T03:43:44","slug":"former-philippine-presidential-spokesperson-urged-to-return-to-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/former-philippine-presidential-spokesperson-urged-to-return-to-the-country","title":{"rendered":"Former Philippine presidential spokesperson urged to return to the country"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Harry Roque Jr. is wanted on human trafficking charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- The government has urged former presidential spokesperson<strong>\u00a0Harry Roque Jr.<\/strong>\u00a0to return to the country after he appeared <strong>in the Netherlands<\/strong>. Roque, who is wanted under an arrest order issued by the House of Representatives. Roque was at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on March 14. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roque was seen with vice president<strong> Sara Duterte<\/strong> and senator <strong>Robin Padilla <\/strong>and said he plans to join the legal team of former president<strong> Rodrigo Duterte<\/strong>, who was arrested on March 11 and faces charges of crimes against humanity at the ICC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) have filed human trafficking charges against Roque. He is accused of alleged links to Lucky South 99, an offshore gaming operation that <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/187-people-rescued-from-gaming-operation-in-the-philippines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">was raided<\/a> in Porac, Pampanga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At a press briefing, Claire Castro, undersecretary of the presidential communications office, said: &#8220;I cannot speak on behalf of the QuadComm and the House of Representatives, because it&#8217;s the House&#8217;s arrest warrant and it has not been executed yet due to Atty. Harry Roque&#8217;s evasion.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Harry Roque, hihiling ng asylum sa The Netherlands | Unang Balita\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/52QurIyGT00?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: GMA Integrated News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n<div class=\"related-article\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/09\/legal_law-300x200.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\"><span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-authorities-file-new-charges-against-alice-guo\">Philippine authorities file new charges against Alice Guo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harry Roque Jr. is wanted on human trafficking charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Former Philippine presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. is wanted on human trafficking charges, allegedly linked to the offshore gaming operation Lucky South 99, which was previously raided. Roque, currently in the Netherlands, is under an arrest order from the House of Representatives, intensifying scrutiny on governance and regulatory compliance within the Philippine iGaming sector.","focusai_entities":"Harry Roque Jr., Lucky South 99, Sara Duterte, Robin Padilla, Rodrigo Duterte, International Criminal Court, House of Representatives, Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Claire Castro, GMA Integrated News, Alice Guo","focusai_location":"Philippines, Netherlands, Porac, Pampanga, The Hague","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.85), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on POGO Licensing?","query":"What are the immediate and long-term implications of these high-profile human trafficking charges for the POGO licensing regime and operational stability in the Philippines?"},{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Outlook?","query":"How will the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission and other Philippine regulatory bodies intensify enforcement actions against offshore gaming operations following these allegations?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[20326],"class_list":["post-777024207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-illegal-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777024207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777024207"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777024207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777024230,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777024207\/revisions\/777024230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777024207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777024207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777024207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}