Who is Harry Roque and was he arrested? Lawyer and spokesperson issues statement amid cancellation of passport scandal

Lawyer and former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque has denied the arrest rumors in a Facebook Live. For the unversed, the Pasig Regional Trial Court ordered the cancellation of his passport after allegations of Rogue being reportedly involved in a human trafficking case came out.

Harry is supposedly connected to Lucky South 99, an illegal POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator) hub. After his passport was canceled, news of his arrest in the Netherlands, where he had gotten a medical procedure, made headlines.

To refute the rumors, Harry uploaded a picture of his boarding pass on Facebook on November 25. It showed he was going to fly to Vienna, Austria, from Amsterdam. In the caption, he wrote that the arrest speculations are untrue. The Department of Foreign Affairs also shared that Harry Rogue was not arrested in the Netherlands.

"There is no truth to the rumors that I have been arrested. I have a scheduled flight to Vienna, Austria today, November 25," the lawyer noted.

According to ABS-CBN's report, on Tuesday night, Rogue appeared on a Facebook Live with content creator Maharlika and shared that he had a major surgery last month, and another a couple of days ago.

When he boarded the plane, they noticed that Harry Roque had a certificate stating that he was unfit to fly. This caused the flight to be delayed. Eventually, the Netherlands immigration authorities issued him a fit-to-fly certificate, and he was able to continue his journey.

Harry Roque claimed that he knew who spread the arrest rumors

While talking to Maharlika, Harry Roque brought up the Philippines' flood corruption scandal. For the unversed, since 2024, allegations of contractors wasting billions of dollars have surfaced.

Multiple cases of ghost projects, which never materialized, were reported. The heated topic caused a massive protest rally in Manila this month. According to the Guardian's report, approximately 650,000 people gathered in the city to protest against corruption.

Meanwhile, former Ako Bicol party-list representative Zaldy Co made several expose videos this month, accusing politician and son of President Bongbong Marcos, Sandro Marcos, of allegedly being involved in the flood funds corruption.

Harry Roque said in the recent livestream that his arrest rumor was reportedly spread to distract people from the expose videos and the corruption. He mockingly said that his "best friend" was behind the rumors, seemingly referring to the President.

"It must be our high best friend. Of course, because they are diverting the issue from Zaldy Co's numbers four and five [videos], which include a P50-billion insertion also involving Sandro Marcos... Zaldy Co keeps reiterating that the mastermind of corruption in the flood control projects is none other than our foolish president. So they don't want the attention on themselves, so they look for a diversion," Harry Roque stated.

He then noted that the speculations wouldn't affect him in any way, and that he would be eating in a "nice restaurant" rather than being imprisoned.

Stay tuned for more updates on Harry Roque and the rumor of his arrest.