Joel Viado, the director of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in the Philippines, stated on Tuesday that Harry Roque, the former presidential spokesperson, likely left the Philippines secretly in a manner similar to that of former Tarlac City Mayor Alice Guo.
In a report submitted to the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, Viado noted that Roque's disappearance bore many similarities to Guo's escape pattern.
"Around 9:30 AM on September 2, we traced Roque's whereabouts to Tawi-Tawi. After verification, he was initially spotted at the airport and then disappeared. Eventually, he arrived in the United Arab Emirates on September 4, as confirmed by the Philippine Embassy in the UAE," Viado stated during the hearing.
Since the immigration bureau did not record Roque's official departure, Viado speculated that he most likely exited through the "backdoor" of Tawi-Tawi, similar to Guo Alice's escape route.
Although the specific method of Guo Alice's departure remains unclear, Viado admitted that there are severe loopholes in the Philippines' border management, allowing individuals with resources to easily escape.
"Anyone supported by POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) or with sufficient funds and resources can easily sneak into other countries through the loopholes in the Philippine borders," Viado pointed out.
He further explained that the POGO industry has multiple unofficial exit channels that help suspects evade capture, making it difficult to trace the specific routes used by Guo Alice or Roque.
Meanwhile, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) recently proposed a new theory suggesting that Guo Alice might have exited the Philippines from the southern region of Tawi-Tawi, traveled through Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, to Kuala Lumpur, and finally reached Batam, Indonesia.
NICA Director Ferlu Silvio reported that their intelligence indicated that Roque also flew from Zamboanga to Tawi-Tawi on September 2, on flight PR2485, and then went off the radar.
"Our data shows that Roque boarded a flight to Tawi-Tawi at 9:30 AM on September 2 and then disappeared," Silvio added.
Months after his disappearance, Roque suddenly appeared in The Hague, Netherlands, last week, coinciding with the arrest and detention of his former boss, ex-President Rodrigo Duterte, by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Previously, allegations surfaced regarding Roque's involvement in POGO operations, particularly in connection with the raided POGO company Lucky South 99 in Porac, Pampanga, where he was alleged to have ties.
Furthermore, on September 13, Roque was found in contempt of Congress by the Philippine House of Representatives' QuadComm for failing to provide documents explaining his sudden wealth increase, leading to his detention. Authorities are closely monitoring his whereabouts and discussing further legal actions.
