MANILA – Senate President Chiz Escudero lashed out at Sen. Imee Marcos on Friday, urging her to stop using the Senate as a platform for personal political agenda.

Escudero issued a statement on Friday denying Marcos’ allegation that he declined to sign the contempt order against Special Envoy on Transnational Crimes, Ambassador Markus Lacanilao.

According to the Senate president, 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.”

Lacanilao was held in contempt and detained by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, chaired by Sen. Marcos, for allegedly falsifying his statements and for denying any knowledge of whether Duterte was presented to a national judicial authority before his arrest and transfer to the ICC detention center in The Hague, Netherlands.

Escudero explained that he ordered Lacanilao’s release from unauthorized detention as a matter of regularity and humanitarian reasons, given that Lacanilao’s 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 declared.

Escudero also announced that he would serve Lacanilao with a show cause order, requiring him to justify within five days why detention should not be imposed.

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