Seventeen farmers from Mariveles, Bataan brought a formal complaint before the National Bureau of Investigation on Monday against former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, accusing him of dispossessing them of agricultural land that had been covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
The complaint adds to a growing roster of legal troubles facing the fugitive Duterte-era official, who has been living outside the Philippines since 2024 and is currently seeking asylum in the Netherlands. Roque already faces a non-bailable qualified human trafficking charge linked to the Lucky South 99 POGO hub in Porac, Pampanga, where he is accused alongside Alice Guo and Cassandra Ong of involvement in what authorities describe as a scam operation.
The land grabbing allegations in Bataan predate that case. As early as January 2023, a farmers’ group had already filed a complaint for grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, and conduct prejudicial to the service before the Office of the Ombudsman — naming Roque, his wife Myla, and several Department of Agrarian Reform officials. The complaint has remained pending since then.
Civil society group United Pilipino Against Crime and Corruption (UPACC) and its founder Pyra Lucas have been assisting the displaced families. According to Lucas, documents obtained from the Bataan Registry of Deeds showed that titles belonging to farmers — some awarded as far back as 1996 — were canceled and transferred to companies linked to the Roques without the farmers’ knowledge or consent. The affected land spans more than 400 hectares and involves at least 127 families. “Walang pinirmahan iyong ibang farmers, at iyong abogado nila ay inambush,” Lucas said.
The land is now allegedly under the control of First Bataan Mariveles Holding Corporation, a company partly owned by Myla Roque, who also serves as managing director of its partner firm Biancham Holdings Corporation. The property is reportedly earmarked for a P1.8-billion township development that, according to the group’s allegations, was intended to be connected to a POGO operation.
Roque has denied the allegations. “The recycled land-grabbing accusation coming from the counsel of convicted kidnapper Ramil Madriaga should finally be laid to rest. If I had committed any such act, the proper case would be civil in nature and should have been filed in the proper forum,” he said in a statement issued in December 2025. He further claimed the accusations were fabricated after he turned down a P5-million bribe from Madriaga to drop a separate kidnapping case. “This is a clear attempt to intimidate me and derail the case,” Roque said.
Malacañang has previously cited the Bataan land dispute in pushing back against Roque’s political persecution claims. “So, perhaps we should also learn the details and the truth about the accusations made by 77 farmers regarding the alleged land grabbing committed by Atty. Harry Roque,” Palace spokesperson Trixie Cruz-Angeles said in May 2025.
Roque, who holds an outstanding arrest warrant for the non-bailable trafficking charge, has said his alternative to waiting for judicial relief is to surrender and apply for bail — a process he estimates could mean six months to a year of detention under what he has described as torturous prison conditions.
