SP Escudero to Imee Marcos: Stop using Senate for your political objectives

Metro Manila, Philippines - Senate President Chiz Escudero did not mince words in telling reelectionist Sen. Imee Marcos to stop using the Senate as an avenue for her political agenda.

Escudero responded to Marcos’ claims that he refused to sign the contempt order against special envoy on transnational crime Markus Lacanilao for supposedly lying during the inquiry on the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

In a statement on Friday, April 11, the Senate president said the presidential sister “released her statement and flaunted to the media her signed arrest and detention order even before I could see, much less, receive a copy of it”.

Escudero added that he directed Lacanilao’s release from unauthorized detention as a matter of regularity and out of humanitarian reasons as his grandfather was about to be laid to rest.

“Senator Marcos says that this episode sets a terrible precedent, and I concur, but for different reasons. I believe it is a dangerous precedent to allow senators to flout the Senate’s own rules for personal gain,” Escudero said.

“I urge Senator Marcos to refrain from using the Senate as a platform for her own personal political objectives and to instead use her name, title, and influence as a bridge toward unity, not a wedge for division. Our people and our country expect and deserve no less,” he added.

Escudero said he will issue a show cause order against Lacanilao to explain in five days why he should not be ordered detained.

Lacanilao was cited in contempt after denying knowledge whether or not Duterte was brought to a national judicial authority before he was arrested and brought to the International Criminal Court detention center in The Hague, Netherlands.

Local authorities arrested the former president on March 11 with the assistance of the International Criminal Police Organization over an ICC warrant for murder charges on crimes against humanity, linked to his bloody drug war.

NewsWatch Plus correspondent Lance Mejico contributed to this report