Secretary of Justice Jesus Crispin Remulla on Wednesday dared former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque to return to the Philippines and face the charges and allegations against him.
“Harapin niya ‘yung ano, kung ano mang sinasakdal sa kanya. Harapin niya, ‘di ba? Magpaka-Pilipino siya nang maayos,” Remulla said.
Remulla made this statement following Roque’s claim of filling for asylum in The Netherlands to defend former President Rodrigo Duterte and representing him as one of the members of his legal defense team against the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“Wala pa ngang nangyayari tumatakas na siya eh. Hindi, harapin niya. Abogado pa naman siya, hindi siya sumusunod sa batas. Sumunod siya sa batas, harapin niya,” Remulla said.
Roque is facing a complaint over the alleged trafficking operations at the Lucky South 99 POGO firm.
However, he filed a counter affidavit, denying the allegations.
Remulla said that Roque was irrelevant and not needed to be present in the case of Duterte against the ICC.
“He’s irrelevant here,” he said.
“Sinisiksik niya ‘yung mukha niya para maging relevant siya. Hindi naman siya kailangan dito,” he added.
However, on Tuesday, Vice President Sara Duterte announced that Roque would not be a part of her father’s defense team.
“Gusto namin nakatutok talaga ‘yung lawyers doon sa kaso (We want the lawyers to focus on the case). Right now, he’s, I heard, applying for asylum. He publicly announced that already. We want him to focus on his asylum, and we want our lawyers to focus on the case,” VP Sara said.