RP to lead drive vs Myanmar's ASEAN chairmanship at IPU meet

Mar 29, 2005 (AFP) - The Philippines will lead pressure to strip Myanmar of the ASEAN chairmanship in 2006 during an international inter-parliamentary meeting, Senate President Franklin Drilon said Tuesday.

Legislators from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will meet in Manila on the sidelines of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting on April 3 to call for reforms in Myanmar, Drilon said.

Some 1,500 legislators from Asia, Europe and America will attend the six-day IPU meeting, which would serve as a forum for issues relating to world peace and democracy.

"The ASEAN parliamentarians will meet in order to come up with a strategy as to how the different governments in ASEAN will address the issue of Myanmar and compel Myanmar to have a definite timetable on the road map to democracy," Drilon told reporters.

Drilon said Filipino legislators will propose an ASEAN-wide stand similar to a resolution now pending in the Senate, calling for Myanmar to be barred from assuming the ASEAN chairmanship in 2006.