Arroyo: Philippines may not sign ASEAN Charter .

This is from the Daily Tribune. I don't really fathom Arroyo's reluctance to ratify the ASEAN charter until Burma's human rights situation improves. If Burma signs the charter this will surely provide just that much more ammunition to critics to put pressure on Burma. If the Philippines refuses to sign the charter that hardly hurts Burma!

Rights chief shrugs off GMA threat, urges gov’t to ratify Asean Charter
02/01/2008
The country’s top human rights official yesterday criticized a threat made by President Arroyo that the Philippines will not ratify the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (Asean) landmark Charter due to poor human rights conditions in junta-ruled Myanmar.
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairman Purificacion Quisumbing said she finds it ironic that the Philippines has been at the forefront of the negotiations for the Asean Charter only to backtrack from ratifying the document.
“Let us have a common push for the Philippines to ratify this. I’m just not sure whether putting a condition or whether we
will ratify or not is a good idea,” Quisumbing said during the 4th Consultative Meeting of human rights commissions of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand in Manila.
“Some leaders have already made statements, they want the release of Aung San Suu Kyi before we even ratify. For us, you should ratify first then you make a stand. Anyway, there are different strategies but we hope that the Philippine government will ratify this as soon as possible,” she added.
The Charter, which was signed during the Asean Summit in Singapore in December last year, cannot be enforced if one country fails to ratify it. The document aims to transform the 40-year-old regional bloc into a rules-based legal entity and committing them to promote human rights and democratic ideals.
“We sent representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs (to negotiate for it). We sent (former President) Fidel Ramos to the Eminent Person Group and Ambassador Rosario Manalo to draft the Charter. We worked hard for this and then we will say that we will not ratify it,” Quisumbing noted.
Mrs. Arroyo earlier warned that the Philippine Congress may not ratify the Charter unless Myanmar restores democracy and frees opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
“The expectation of the Philippines is that if Myanmar signs the Charter, it is committed to returning to the path of democracy and releasing Aung San Suu Kyi,” Mrs. Arroyo said in December in Singapore.
“Until the Philippine Congress sees that happen, it would have extreme difficulty in ratifying the Charter.”
At their 4th consultative meeting in Manila, which was concluded yesterday, human rights officials from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philipines have proposed the establishment of an Asean Human Rights Commission in the Charter.
During the meeting, they discussed a proposed Terms of Reference (ToR) for the regional human rights body that will monitor human rights conditions in the 10-member Asean countries, but balked on the idea of imposing sanctions on violators like Myanmar.
Quisumbing said it is up to the Asean, which makes decisions by consensus and has a policy of non-interference, to adopt their proposal or incorporate it in future draft ToR of the Charter.
“It will be for the (Asean) governments to decide. It’s not for us to interfere but we will keep an eye on this,” she added. “Our commitment is that we will continue to monitor and observe and at the appropriate time, intervention. We will give inputs.”
She said she is not too optimistic that the charter will be implemented as soon as possible, but said she hopes that it will not take “another 40 years” for it to be enforced.
“The question is, will we wait for 40 years for this Terms of Reference? There is no deadline, but if we keep it alive, we will be able to get such a body. But the way I see it, it’s step by step,” Quisumbing said.
In the 10-member Asean, only the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have established human rights commission.
Michaela P. del Callar