Mamamayang Liberal party-list representative-elect Leila de Lima on the proclamation ceremony for party-list teams on the Manila Lodge Tent Metropolis. (INQUIRER.web/John Eric Mendoza)
MANILA, Philippines — Mamamayang Liberal party-list consultant – elect Leila De Lima, on Monday urged former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque to return to the nation and face the accusations in opposition to him.
Roque, who’s the topic of an arrest warrant over his alleged involvement in a rip-off hub in Pampanga, mentioned he’ll proceed to search political asylum within the Netherlands.
“My solely message to him is, he ought to come again right here face the accusations in opposition to him,” De Lima mentioned in a press convention in Manila Lodge Tent Metropolis, partly in Filipino, after the proclamation of her party-list group.
“He has a warrant of arrest already and he is aware of that, as a lawyer, there’s such a precept or a dictum in regulation that flight is indicative of guilt, so he ought to face it,” De Lima added.
“He mustn’t simply disguise overseas or disguise underneath the appliance for asylum.”
The Could 8 warrant was primarily based on a professional human trafficking case filed by the Division of Justice (DOJ) in opposition to Roque and a number of other others for his or her alleged involvement within the operations of rip-off hub Fortunate South 99 in Porac, Pampanga.
The DOJ famous Roque’s supposed participation was not simply restricted to being a lawyer for Whirlwind Company—the corporate which leased land to Fortunate South 99—however he was additionally the alleged consultant of the Philippine offshore gaming operator agency.
Roque, nonetheless, has already utilized for asylum since March 19, or months earlier than the issuance of the arrest warrant.
READ: De Lima dares Harry Roque to give up: Ako nga hinarap ko eh
De Lima, who confronted drug-related expenses and was arrested in 2017, had all the time maintained her innocence, saying that the costs had been baseless and in retaliation to the investigation she carried out within the Senate on former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody drug conflict.
She was detained for six years, eight months, and 21 days earlier than being acquitted final June.
Roque as soon as advised De Lima: “Could you spend the remainder of your life in jail.”
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Other than the arrest warrant, the Home quad committee held Roque in contempt and was ordered detained within the Home for the second time.
In response to this earlier improvement, De Lima mentioned in October final yr: “All of you is aware of the entire issues he mentioned to me, and take a look at him now, he’s on the run, as an alternative of dealing with the rule of regulation.”
