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Harry Roque on July 29, 2024.
STAR / Jesse Bustos
MANILA, Philippines — A Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Angeles City has issued a warrant of arrest against former human rights lawyer Harry Roque and Whirlwind Corp. incorporator Cassandra Ong.
The warrant, released by RTC Branch 118, stems from a reported violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 in connection with alleged unlawful activities at Lucky South 99, a Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) facility raided by authorities on June 5, 2024.
Aside from Ong and Roque, the court also issued arrest warrants against 48 other individuals.
These include alleged incorporators, directors, stockholders, officers, authorized representatives and/or employees of Lucky South 99.
According to the prosecutors who filed the case, the respondents are accused of maintaining, harboring, transporting, or receiving the private complainants and other vulnerable victims for forced labor as customer service representatives in an online gambling casino operated by Whirlwind Corp. and Lucky South 99, until the victims’ recruitment fees were repaid.
Groups allegedly linked to Ong and Lucky South 99 are also accused of kidnapping individuals who were unable to pay their online gambling debts.
These victims were reportedly sold to POGOs to work off their unpaid balances.
As for Roque, prosecutors said that in his capacity as legal counsel for the involved corporations, he was either aware of or willfully ignored the alleged unlawful nature of their operations and actively participated in securing the renewal of their gaming license.
The charge against them is non-bailable.
In a statement, Roque who currently in the Netherlands due to what he claims is political persecution, said he will exhaust all available remedies to secure his life and liberty, which he described as “under threat.”
Meanwhile, Ong’s lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, said he could neither confirm nor deny her whereabouts due to a “lack of information.”
“I also cannot give any statements regarding the warrant for her arrest pending verification and study of the same,” Topacio said.
In December 2024, Ong was released from the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong after the House of Representatives concluded its probe into illegal POGOs. That same year, the government banned POGO operations.
