Surigao del Norte Rep. Ace Barbers, chairperson of the House quad committee probing the proliferation of illegal POGOs, said the issuance of an arrest warrant against former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque could have been prevented if he remained compliant with the panel's orders.

The detention order against Roque was brought about by his failure to submit subpoenaed documents including, among others, his Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth from 2016 to 2022.

Roque had previously committed to providing the records during the hearing but later filed a motion to quash, asserting they were irrelevant to the panel's ongoing POGO inquiry, in which he is being implicated.

Lawmakers suspect that the abrupt increase in Roque's assets under his Biancham Holdings and Trading Inc., which only had P125,300 in 2014 and skyrocketed to P68,775,800 in 2018, was due to his connection with Lucky South 99 Corp., an illegal POGO firm in Porac, Pampanga.

Lucky South 99 authorized representative Cassandra Li Ong was a client of Roque, whom he escorted to the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corporation to allow the firm to reschedule the payment of its unpaid taxes, which were projected to be at least $500,000.