MANILA, Philippines – Philippine authorities are looking at “many options” to arrest former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, among them requesting the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to issue a red notice alert on him, highlighting the complex nature of international law when it comes to asylum-seekers.
“We are still preparing the documents needed for an Interpol request for a red notice. Yet, over and beyond Interpol, and upon consultation with the international law experts in the DOJ, there are many more options to consider,” Mico Clavano, spokesperson of the Department of Justice (DOJ), told reporters Tuesday night, May 20.
Roque was ordered arrested by a court in Angeles City, Pampanga, last week over charges of qualified human trafficking, a non-bailable offense, related to his lawyering role in the alleged scam farm raided in Porac, Pampanga. The scam farm, the charges said, trafficked mostly foreign workers and forced them to engage in scamming operations inside the compound in Porac.
But Roque had been insisting on his rights under the international law principle of non-refoulement as an asylum-seeker in the Netherlands. Non-refoulement generally means states are bound by an obligation not to deport an asylum seeker to their origin country, and this covers Roque’s application period.
Malacañang earlier said that this right is not absolute, as non-refoulement is generally understood to mean not deporting a person who will face persecution. The main question is whether a court-issued warrant against Roque for qualified trafficking is considered political persecution.
“Mukhang si Atty. Harry Roque na lang naman ang naniniwala sa kanyang pananaw na may political persecution,” Press Undersecretary Claire Castro said in a news briefing Wednesday, May 21.
(It looks like Attorney Harry Roque is the only one who believes his view that there is political persecution.)
Salvador Panelo, former Duterte chief presidential legal counsel and Roque’s colleague in the Rodrigo Duterte Cabinet, said that Roque is not being persecuted.
“If his basis for saying that he is politically persecuted is because he is a critic of the [Marcos] administration, then this claim of political persecution will not lie for the reason there are other harsher critics of the administration who are not being persecuted nor prosecuted,” Panelo said in a statement Tuesday.
Complex processes
According to the Netherlands’ simplified asylum procedure, an asylum residence permit is granted to someone who has “a well-founded fear of persecution in your country of origin because of your race, religion, nationality, political opinion or because you belong to a specific social group.” There are seven steps in the Netherlands’ asylum application process before they reach a decision, and it’s unclear which step in that process Roque is.
“He should come back and face the charges. The burden of proof lies on the government, he is constitutionally presumed innocent. Let the government prove its case,” said Panelo.
Clavano said “the DOJ is in the process of identifying the best course of action.”
The Philippines and the Netherlands have no extradition treaty. While extraditions are still possible without a treaty, the process is more complicated. In East Timor which has no extradition treaty with the Philippines, Manila also relied on Interpol to arrest former lawmaker Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves Jr, who is wanted here for murder. But to this day, the Philippines has not been able to bring Teves home because the former lawmaker won his appeal to stay in East Timor.
Before the Interpol’s red notice on Teves, the DOJ had considered using the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime or UNTOC, a treaty that both the Philippines and East Timor are signatories to, and has its own extradition framework. For Roque, Clavano said the UNTOC is “most likely not applicable to the circumstances present here.”
Roque to DOJ: Make up your mind
Roque taunted the DOJ from The Hague where he is maintaining his social media presence through vlogs and livestreams. Nahihilo ako sa mga taga-DOJ. Manggigipit na lang, hindi pa sila magkasundo. Ang gulo ‘nyo naman, manggigipit na lang kayo wala pa kayong isang boses, nahihilo na ang biktima ng inyong panggigipit.”
(I’m so confused with the DOJ. They cannot even agree on the ways to harass me. You guys are confusing, you are harassing me but don’t have a single voice, the victim of your harassment is so confused.)
Roque surfaced in The Hague in March, after months of traveling discreetly to avoid the congressional hearings investigating his role in the Porac scam farm masquerading as a Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO). Roque has admitted to lawyering for the real estate firm that leased land to the POGO, although prosecutors have alleged that this was a layered structure meant to deceive, and Roque was essentially helping the big boss. Roque’s closest revealed interaction with the POGO itself was helping them arrange meetings with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) to renew their license.
In a vlog from The Hague, Roque said if he is detained for qualified trafficking over calls he made to help a POGO, “wala na mag-aabogasya (no one would ever want to become a lawyer).”
The charge sheet says “Roque had knowledge of or was willfully blind to the fact that the business and the client he was assisting was engaging in labor trafficking for purposes of financial gain through online scamming.”
The Interpol, which counts the Philippines among its member, has figured a lot in Philippine affairs. The most prominent was the arrest former president Rodrigo Duterte in Manila on a warrant of the International Criminal Court (ICC) over crimes against humanity charges.
The Interpol was also at play when the Philippines arrested an Iranian beauty queen at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in 2019. Bahareh Zarebahari claimed she was being persecuted for her opposition to the Iranian government. The Philippines granted her asylum three weeks after her arrest. – Rappler.com