MANILA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The Philippines' human rights chief criticised President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Thursday for possibly jeopardising a regional charter by demanding that democracy be restored in military-ruled Myanmar. Arroyo has warned that the Philippine Congress will not ratify the Association of South East Asian Nations' (ASEAN) landmark charter if Myanmar does not release opposition leader and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. The charter, approved in Singapore in November, needs ratification by all 10 ASEAN members before an economic and security bloc of 560 million people can be created. "Let us have a common push for the Philippines to ratify," Purificacion Quisumbing, head of the Human Rights Commission told reporters after meeting her counterparts from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in Manila. "I'm not sure whether putting a condition on whether we will ratify or not is a good idea. For us, you should ratify first, then you make a stand." Quisumbing said human rights bodies in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand had agreed to push for a more independent regional rights body to curb abuses. But the creation of such an organisation could only happen once all 10 Southeast Asian states, including Myanmar, had ratified the charter, which they have promised to do within 12 months. "The question is, will we wait for 40 years for these terms of reference? There is no deadline, but if we keep it alive, we'll be able to get such body," she said. Arroyo's bold stance on Myanmar contrasts with criticism by the United Nations and human rights groups of her government's failure to stop abuses at home, in particular the involvement of soldiers in the murder of hundreds of left-wing activists. Ratification in the Philippines needs a two-thirds majority in the slow-moving Senate, which has yet to ratify a free trade deal with Japan that was signed in 2005. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. (Reporting by Manny Mogato, editing by Carmel Crimmins and Katie Nguyen)
Children ride a cramped tricycle on their way to school in Manila January 30, 2008. Home to an estimated 89 million people, the largely Catholic Philippines has one of the fastest-growing ...
Philippines
