
SPECIAL Envoy on Transnational Crime Ambassador Markus Lacanilao was cited by the Senate panel on foreign relations for direct contempt for alleged lying on April 10, 2025.
Lacanilao should have been detained immediately since the rules do not even mention a need for a show cause order. However, instead of immediate detention, Lacanilao was given 11 days before he was eventually ordered to be detained. In contrast, it took the administration only several hours to arrest and whisk former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte out of the country in March.
Furthermore, to add insult to injury, Lacanilao is to be detained for only two days. While ordinary people are locked up until they purge themselves of the contempt, as sanctioned by Section 18, Resolution 5, Series of 2010, as amended, Lacanilao is given an ever so gentle slap on the wrist. Apparently, the rules only apply to ordinary people and not to people like Lacanilao who is favored by the powers that be.