Senate President Francis Escudero has ordered the two-day detention of Ambassador Markus Lacanilao, the Philippine special envoy on transnational crime, after the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations cited him for contempt. Lacanilao is hereby ordered placed under the custody of the Senate of the Philippines for a period not exceeding two days, having failed to satisfactorily explain, through a clear statement of facts, why his answers during the hearing were not evasive,” Escudero stated in a written order dated April 21. Lacanilao’s contempt citation stems from his testimony during an April 10 Senate hearing on the Philippine government’s controversial arrest and surrender of former President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity. The envoy had previously been issued a Show Cause Order on April 11, directing him to justify why he should not be held in contempt. In his reply, Lacanilao claimed limited personal knowledge regarding Duterte’s surrender to the ICC and said he was unaware of whether the former president had first been presented before competent Philippine judicial authorities. Read Full Story
