Imee using Senate for personal gain? 'I can't judge motives,' Alan says

Senator Alan Peter Cayateno said Friday he would not judge the motives of his colleagues in the Senate with regard to conducting legislative inquiries, because doing so would be inappropriate.

Cayetano made the statement when asked if he agrees with Senate President Francis "Chiz" Escudero's remark that Senator Imee Marcos should not use the Senate for political gain.

"It is not good for us to judge kasi ano 'yan eh, motive eh. So unparliamentary na 'yung isang senador ay sabihin na ganu'n [for personal gain]," Cayetano said.

(It is not good for us to judge because we are talking about motives. It's unparliamentary for one senator to say that [personal gain] is the motivation.)

"Anyway, we know what's true or otherwise, so let's just let people judge," Cayetano added.

Marcos, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, expressed dismay over Escudero's refusal to sign the contempt order against Special Envoy on Transnational Crimes Ambassador Markus Lacanilao.

The committee cited Lacanilao in contempt for allegedly lying during its hearing on the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte on March 11. The latter's arrest paved the way for Philippine authorities to surrender him to the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands.

Cayetano said reelectionist senators, fairly or unfairly, are judged if their actions are all politically motivated.

"If I was a re-electionist and my platform concerns the environment, I could also be accused of using an inquiry for reelection. Such judgments are part of our job," Cayetano said.

"That is why I won't comment on that, because it won't let cooler heads prevail," he added.

Marcos is seeking a second six-year term in the Senate. She has not joined the campaign sorties of the Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas, the senatorial slate endorsed by her brother, President Ferdinand "Bongbong Marcos Jr., that has dominated pre-election surveys.

Escudero responded to Senator Marcos' comments on Thursday, saying she should "refrain from using the Senate as a platform for her own personal political objectives."

The Senate President said Lacanilao was "not given due process" during the hearing. On Friday, however, Escudero issued a show cause order against Lacanilao, asking him to explain why he should not be cited in contempt for "testifying falsely and evasively" during a Senate inquiry.

Also on Friday, Cayetano also said he agrees with retired Supreme Court associate justice Adolf Azcuna that the Philippine authorities' surrender of Duterte to the ICC was not legal.

"What our law says is the surrender is pursuant to a treaty, so without a treaty, you can't surrender [a suspect]," Cayetano said, referring to fhe Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity.

Azcuna, however, said during the same April 10 Senate inquiry that the ICC warrant of arrest issued to Duterte is legal, and that the tribunal may have followed "male captus, bene detentus" doctrine, which means that "even if the arrest is illegal, the detention can be legal, [and] it does not automatically mean the person must be released."

Duterte is currently under ICC detention at the Hague Penitentiary Institution or the Scheveningen Prison.

He faces charges of crimes against humanity for alleged extrajudicial killings during his administration's war on drugs. — VDV, GMA Integrated News