It is likely that former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque took the same route as Alice Guo in leaving the country, according to Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado during a Senate joint hearing on Tuesday, March 18.
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00:00Alice Goh most likely left the country by a backdoor exit and may have
00:05entered Sabah by crossing from Tawi Tawi. Next slide please.
00:10Why do we think she used the backdoor exit? The country has a porous
00:16border with a coastline of 36,289 kilometers, difficult to monitor the
00:22whole stretch. Next slide please. As per an inter-agency
00:29council against human trafficking study on backdoor exits done 2024 and 2025
00:36traffickers have resorted to trafficking by sea via backdoor exits because of
00:41strengthened implementation of anti-trafficking policies at airports
00:45and seaports. Meanwhile monitoring of private wharves and ports where the
00:51Bureau of Immigration is not present remains a challenge. Moreover the Ayakat
00:57study pointed out that locals of the Sambuanga, Sulu and Tawi Tawi areas have
01:02been known to travel to Sabah without undergoing passport clearance since then
01:06they have been doing this since ancient times, since time immemorial. Next slide
01:14please. Relating this to the incident involving
01:19former presidential spokesperson attorney Harry Roque who was sighted in
01:24Tawi Tawi at around 9.30 a.m. on September 2 and it was verified and
01:32confirmed that he did not he was not sighted within the town of Bongao after
01:40the initial sighting in in the airport on September 2 that eventually on
01:45September 4 2024 attorney Roque arrived in the United Arab Emirates as
01:51confirmed by the Philippine ambassador to the UAE. Since Mr. Roque has no
01:56record recorded departure in the BIS records he likely took the same route as
02:00Alice Goh in leaving the country by using a backdoor exit in Tawi Tawi.