Aquino to leave Monday for Asean summit in Cambodia

OFF TO CAMBODIA. President Benigno Aquino III attends the 20th Asean summit. INQUIRER file photo

By Christine O. Avendaño
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Sunday, April 1st, 2012

MANILA, Philippines—President Aquino will embark on his first foreign trip for the year when he leaves Monday for Cambodia to attend the 20th Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.

And as he joins fellow Southeast Asian leaders for the two-day summit, Mr. Aquino is expected to push for his advocacies, which include maritime security and the West Philippine Sea.

He would also most probably take up at the summit North Korea’s controversial missile launch, for which he had expressed opposition to last week due to the likelihood that debris from the launch may reach the Philippines.

Mr. Aquino’s departure for Cambodia on Monday means he will be working during the first days of Holy Week.

The President will take a chartered flight to Cambodia because there was no direct commercial flight to that country, said his spokesman Edwin Lacierda on Sunday.

Lacierda also confirmed that accompanying the President to the summit are, besides himself, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo, Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman and Mindanao Development Authority chair Luwalhati Antonino.