ICYMI: PAGCOR chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco on Wednesday named former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque as the one who helped in the granting of license to a recently-raided POGO firm in Porac, Pampanga.
During the continuation of the Senate investigation into the POGO hubs that were raided, Tengco narrated that sometime in July 2023, Roque accompanied Katherine Cassandra Li Ong, the authorized representative of Lucky South 99, in a meeting in his office to discuss the "problems" about the POGO firm's billing from PAGCOR.
Roque was no longer a public official when the meeting happened.
In a press statement, Roque said he is not and never been a legal counsel of any illegal POGO and was neither a counsel of Lucky South 99.
He said he accompanied Ong in the meeting "because I thought Lucky South--- Whirlwind’s principal---was a victim of estafa. By way of accommodation, I joined Ms. Ong since I was then persuading Whirlwind to invest in two energy projects of which I was the primary proponent."
He added that Ong is Whirlwind’s Corporate Secretary.
During the continuation of the Senate investigation into the POGO hubs that were raided, Tengco narrated that sometime in July 2023, Roque accompanied Katherine Cassandra Li Ong, the authorized representative of Lucky South 99, in a meeting in his office to discuss the "problems" about the POGO firm's billing from PAGCOR.
Roque was no longer a public official when the meeting happened.
In a press statement, Roque said he is not and never been a legal counsel of any illegal POGO and was neither a counsel of Lucky South 99.
He said he accompanied Ong in the meeting "because I thought Lucky South--- Whirlwind’s principal---was a victim of estafa. By way of accommodation, I joined Ms. Ong since I was then persuading Whirlwind to invest in two energy projects of which I was the primary proponent."
He added that Ong is Whirlwind’s Corporate Secretary.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I just want to tell the story of what happened sometime in July 2023 where for three weeks of July 2023,
00:19I received a call from the former Secretary Harry Roque.
00:30He asked for an appointment with me.
00:39So on July 26, 2023, there was an opportunity to visit my office in the PAG Corps when we were still in Ermita.
00:57He gave an appointment and he came to my office.
01:06I was accompanied by Atty. Jessa Fernandez who is also here. She is the head of OGLD.
01:22Former Secretary Harry Roque came with a woman and introduced her to Atty. Jessa.
01:34That woman is Cassandra Leong.
01:40When he introduced her to us, he said that Cassandra Leong is facing a problem.
02:00This is related to her payment of all the billing of the company she is working for in the PAG Corps.
02:15I asked Cassandra Leong what the problem is.
02:23She said that she trusted their authorized representative, Mr. Dennis Cunanan.
02:38She said that the six months that they are supposed to pay the bills in the PAG Corps, she gave it to Mr. Cunanan to pay in the PAG Corps.
02:54Aside from the six months that they are supposed to pay in the PAG Corps,
03:02Cassandra Leong said that Mr. Dennis Cunanan is still charging additional fees, fines and penalties to Cassandra.
03:19She said that she is charging additional fees to Mr. Dennis Cunanan every month.
03:31She believed that she is charging additional fees to the PAG Corps.
03:36That is why they were surprised when Atty. Jessa Fernandez sent a letter to them saying that they have arrears for six months.
03:50That is more than 500,000 USD.
03:57So Cassandra said, as far as I remember,
04:05Chairman, the truth is while we are talking, there is someone who is paying in the land bank of the Philippines, in the account of the PAG Corps,
04:15so that the arrears of more than 500,000 USD can be reduced.
04:26So I told her, why do you trust Mr. Dennis Cunanan and you are not paying directly in the land bank of the Philippines account of the PAG Corps?
04:42She said that she trusted Mr. Dennis Cunanan because he facilitated the license of the company she was working for,
04:56and he is also the official body of the company registered in the PAG Corps.
05:06So I told her, why do you trust Mr. Dennis Cunanan and you are not paying directly in the land bank of the Philippines?
05:12First, they are talking about giving them a chance to pay the arrears.
05:20And I repeat, she said, while we are talking, there is someone who is paying in the land bank of the Philippines, in the account of the PAG Corps,
05:34aside from that, they are asking, because we changed the rules and structure last July,
05:47the license issued by the last board of the PAG Corps will expire sometime in October 2023.
05:58Because we changed the rules and guidelines, they want to pass the re-application.
06:11Chair, if I may interrupt, in July, former Secretary Roque and Ms. Cassandra Ong met with you,
06:22and in October, the license will expire when she will leave Pogo, did former Secretary Roque follow up with you?
06:35No. And I will clarify, Secretary Roque was there. She did not pressurize.
06:46She was the only one talking about helping Cassandra Ong.
06:56She did not follow up back then.
07:00She did not follow up back then, but she followed up eventually.
07:06What I said in the meeting, if you will reapply here in the new rules and guidelines of the PAG Corps,
07:18you will submit all the documents that we need for now.
07:25Because we changed the structure, you will not be able to apply easily if you do not follow our new guidelines.
07:36Because that's what you told her after the July meeting, but you were there with Atty. Jessa during the July meeting.
07:45She did not follow up with you, former Secretary Roque, but did she follow up with Atty. Jessa?
07:53I will continue. After that, that's what I told them.
08:02There is a new rule that we will tighten because of what we saw that happened in May of that time,
08:11and there are many bad news about the licenses of PAG Corps.
08:22They were filed sometime in September of 2023.
08:31I just want to say, that same afternoon, I checked, Cassandra really paid, or what she was called,
08:40in the land bank, through a copy of the deposit slip, more or less US$203,000.
08:54So this was through Mr. Cunanan?
08:58No.
08:59Not yet?
09:00I repeat, when I talked to former Secretary Harry Roque, as well as Binibining Cassandra and me and Atty. Jessa,
09:12she said that while they are talking to me, there is an entity that is paying in the land bank.
09:22So to validate what she said to us, I ordered Atty. Jessa to follow up if they really paid that day.
09:37She did not mention how much, she just said that they currently have an entity that is paying in the land bank.
09:48Excuse me, Chair.
09:49Yes.
09:51Why was their deposit still not enough?
09:53Yes.
09:54So yesterday afternoon, I told Atty. Jessa, when they left, to follow up if what they said is true, that they will deposit.
10:05So yesterday afternoon, we received a bank deposit slip in the account of PAG Corps, and this amounted to US$203,000.
10:19In short, Senator Binibining, the total amount is not US$500,000.
10:29She also said that the arrears could be payment over time because Dennis Cunanan fooled them.
10:40After that, Atty. Harry Roque did not talk to me.
10:51They filed for reapplication in September 2023.
11:00There, it was seen that during the administration of PAG Corps, their license is only for 3,000 square meters.
11:15But in their reapplication that we received in September 2023, they are applying for 1,000 square meters.
11:26So it's tripled from the original.
11:28It's tripled from the original that PAG Corps violated their license during the last administration.
11:38So there, their application has been pre-processed.
11:45And they have a lot of documents that are missing because we are in a hurry.
11:55After that, Atty. Roque directly called or contacted Atty. Jessa Fernandez.
12:07How many times did former Sec. Roque call Atty. Jessa?
12:12Can I let Atty. Fernandez answer this because Atty. Roque is directly following up with her.
12:23Atty. Jessa Fernandez.
12:25To reiterate, after that meeting, you never talked to each other?
12:30No. And I will repeat, she did not pressure me.
12:36As a lawyer, as her client, she is just facilitating and talking to me.
12:43So she just accompanied you?
12:45She just accompanied me.
12:46I can explain that because that's where I met Binibining Cassandra Ong.
12:52I also asked her, ma'am why is Dennis Cunanan your representative if you are the one running this?
13:04When they were applying for a license, she was advised by her lawyer and PAGCOR that she might be too young to be an authorized representative.
13:19Because at that time, in 2020, if I'm not mistaken, she told me that she was only 11 years old.
13:28Teenager? Who was her lawyer who advised her?
13:33That's why she said that we chose Mr. Dennis Cunanan to be the authorized representative of the company because he facilitated our license with PAGCOR.
13:51So if you will allow me, in response to Senator Binibining's question, Atty. Harry Roque did not have a say.
14:02Atty. Jessa, who is the head of licensing, was the one who talked to or texted Atty. Roque.
14:19So with your permission.
14:21Yes, thank you, Chair.
14:22So Atty. Jessa, how many times did Atty. Roque call you?
14:29Or how many times did he talk to you after the arrest in July 2023?
14:35Ma'am, in my trace, he called me five times.
14:42He was just asking what are the lacking documents that need to be complied with.
14:51Then I sent him a list of what needs to be complied with and he replied, thank you.
14:59And then, he also messaged me saying that he was just informing me that they retained a lawyer for the AMLOC filing and it will be filed in three weeks latest. Thanks and FYI.
15:15Then, he called me twice and I was not able to answer because I was in a meeting.
15:21And then, once, he followed up on the status of their application.
15:30So all of them, Atty. Jessa,
15:33there was one text from Atty. Roque.
15:37There were five calls that you talked to, plus two calls that you were not able to answer, plus one follow up.
15:46So all of them, Atty. Roque followed up on all of them.
15:54Only six, Ma'am.
15:55Only six, Ma'am.
15:56Three were answered, two were not answered.
15:59And then, on May 14, 2024, I informed him of our decision to deny the application of LuckySouth
16:11because we were able to find a reason for not giving them a license at that time.
16:21Thank you.
16:22So six, in total, were followed up.
16:25There were still three, usually.
16:28It's par for the course, but there were six more.
16:31So, Sen., I mean, Atty. Jessa,
16:35we have already loaded this slide.
16:39This is the one that flashed, the official attachment to the application of LuckySouth 99.
16:47Is this right?
16:48This is the attachment to their original application.
16:51Correct, Ma'am.
16:52Thank you.
16:53And we can see here, there are three levels under President Julian Linsangan III.
17:03There is a claim here that their legal person is Atty. Harry Roque.
17:09Yes, before you answer, Atty. Jessa, I'm going to answer.
17:12I just want to ask, did you inform through text?
17:15Was there an answer?
17:16It was through a phone call.
17:19I will inform the principals.
17:23And there was no face-to-face meeting.
17:25And on record, he did not say that you should give them a permit.
17:33There was no such demand.
17:35As for me, Ma'am, there was no such demand.
17:39He just said, please or thank you.
17:43That's all.
17:44For me too, Atty. Vinay.
17:47He did not force him.
17:49He was talking to him.
17:51And our conversations were very light.
17:54He said, and I will repeat, I accompanied him and it was an aggrieved party.
18:00So there was no scenario that he was holding his arm?
18:02There was none. I explained that in front of him.
18:05Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair.
18:06Thank you too, Ma'am.
18:07Thank you, Sen. Nancy. Thank you, Chair.
18:09Yes, Sen. Ginggoy.
18:10So Atty. Roque is just doing his job as a lawyer?
18:15Yes.