Chiz to Imee: Stop using Senate as your platform

SENATE President Francis Escudero urged Sen. Imee Marcos to stop using the Senate as a platform for her personal political objectives. Marcos should "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," Escudero said. Escudero and Marcos had sharp exchanges following the resumption Thursday of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations' inquiry on the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Marcos, the committee chairman, had cited in contempt Special Envoy on Transnational Crime Markus Lacanilao for lying about the circumstances behind Duterte's arrest, and ordered him locked up in the Senate's detention facility. Escudero, however, said on Friday he directed the release of Lacanilao "both as a matter of regularity and out of humanitarian consideration as his grandfather is to be laid to rest today." Escudero added that he believes Lacanilao was detained without approval and due process. "All Senate members are fully aware that under the Senate Rules, the power of a committee chairperson to order the arrest or detention of any resource person cited in contempt is subject to the approval of the Senate President. This safeguard ensures that the Senate's powers are exercised prudently, with due regard for all rights, and not wielded for personal or political ends," he said. He said that for reasons unknown, "Senator Marcos appears to have disregarded this long-standing rule or conveniently forgotten that the approval of the Senate President is not automatic nor ministerial simply because she desires it." Escudero made it clear that "I did not refuse to sign Ambassador Markus Lacanilao's contempt order. Senator Marcos released her statement and flaunted her signed arrest and detention order to the media even before I could see, much less receive a copy of it." To comply with the requisites of due process, Escudero said he is issuing a "show cause order" on Friday for Lacanilao "to explain within 5 days why he should not be cited in contempt, as requested by Senator Marcos. I shall decide whether to sign his arrest/detention only thereafter." "I urge Senator Marcos to refrain from using the Senate as a platform for her personal political objectives and 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," Escudero said. Marcos said Escudero's refusal to not cite Lacanilao in contempt was "disappointing and dangerous." "This time, he went even further — he ordered Lacanilao's release, in spite of the ambassador's blatant and repeated lies before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations," Marcos said. In a manifestation during Thursday's hearing, Sen. Bong Go described the arrest and surrender of Duterte to the ICC as a calculated move, carried out with alarming speed and surrounded by unresolved legal questions. "Let's call a spade a spade. They want to surrender Tatay Digong to the ICC," said Go. "There is no excuse. It is obvious. They are moving faster than four o'clock." Go recounted how he and Vice President Sara Duterte were barred from entering Villamor Airbase when they sought to check on the former president's condition. "Tatay Digong [Duterte] is harmless. He can hardly walk or even put on his socks and tie his shoes. It hurts to see that the person who devoted his whole life to service is abandoned in a foreign land," he said.