<\/p>\n
A REGIONAL Trial Court in Angeles City, Pampanga has issued an arrest warrant against <\/strong>former presidential spokesman <\/strong>lawyer Harry Roque, <\/strong>\u00a0businesswoman Cassandra Li Ong, and several others in connection with a human trafficking case linked <\/strong>to a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hub in Porac, Pampanga<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ong is the alleged representative of the POGO hub Lucky South 99 in Porac town.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Angeles City RTC Branch 118 issued the warrants after the court <\/strong>found probable cause against Roque, Ong, and \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 nine others, for non-bailable violations under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The charges were based on findings from a series of government raids on suspected POGO operations where widespread forced labor, illegal detention, and other trafficking-related offenses were discovered by the authorities.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prosecutors cited violations of Section 4(l) in relation to Section 6(c) of Republic Act 9208, which covers acts that facilitate trafficking such as recruitment and exploitation of persons.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Aside from Roque and Ong, several other individuals were named in the cases, including Chinese and Filipinos allegedly involved in gaming hubs operating under the guise of POGO.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Earlier , the National Bureau of Investigation (NB) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) conducted raids in Pampanga, exposing a network of criminal activity involving not only trafficking but also cybercrime and financial fraud.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meanwhile, Roque left the Philippines in September after being cited for contempt for refusing to attend House hearings into offshore gambling sites used as fronts for criminal activities.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In December last year, he filed his counter-affidavit from the United Arab Emirates and denied being the lawyer of Lucky South 99.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n He has sought asylum in the Netherlands, citing alleged political persecution through unjust prosecution.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A REGIONAL Trial Court in Angeles City, Pampanga has issued an arrest warrant against former presidential spokesman lawyer Harry Roque, businesswoman Cassandra Li Ong, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13826,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13824\/revisions\/13826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}