PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is likely to miss the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, where each of the member-nations are expected to present a stance on the military coup crisis.
In a Palace briefing, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that the President will instead be sending a representative from the Department of Foreign Affairs to attend the ASEAN Summit slated on April 24 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“Hindi siya personal na mag-a-attend. Marami rin pong hindi makakarating na heads of state ng ASEAN. But the Department of Foreign Affairs surely will be there,” Roque told reporters.
Asked by reporters where the Philippine government stands on the political crisis in Myanmar that resulted in the forcible removal and imprisonment of civilian leaders led by State Counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, Roque said:
“Kaya nga may summit para sa pag-uusap ng common position ng ASEAN” (Coming up with a unified position is what the summit is for), Roque added.
The Philippine government has yet to make a stand on Myanmar’s political unrest that has so far resulted in the death of 500 persons, even after Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin’s earlier call for the release of Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders, and the restoration of the democratic government in Myanmar.