MANILA (UPDATE)—The Philippines will not back an international call for the release of ousted and detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Foreign Affairs chief Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Saturday, citing the importance of “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The country thus joined China and Russia in veering away from a United Nations Human Rights Council consensus adopting a resolution urging the Myanmar junta to free Suu Kyi.

In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said that while it backed Myanmar’s progress toward democracy the Philippines believed in its neighbor’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“As a sovereign country in a world of sovereign states, the Philippines cannot stress strongly enough the primacy of national internal efforts towards democratic reforms, and never by the imposition of foreign solutions whether in regional or multilateral contexts, including through this Council,” the statement read, which was delivered through a recorded message, according to Locsin.

@UNGeneva The Philippine strong statement was delivered by recorded message. The Philippines joined China, Russia, Venezuela and Bolivia IN DISSOCIATING ITSELF FROM the HRC consensus that adopted the resolution but without taking a vote. Statement follows. @DFAPHL

— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) February 13, 2021

Bolivia and Venezuela have also dissociated themselves from the Human Rights Council consensus.

The UN rights body called on Myanmar on Friday to release Suu Kyi and other officials and to refrain from using violence on people protesting against the military coup.

The 47-member Geneva forum adopted a resolution brought by Britain and the European Union (EU) unanimously without a vote, although Russia and China said afterwards that they "disassociated" themselves from the consensus.

Myanmar's envoy said before the vote that the resolution was "not acceptable".

Despite its stance on Suu Kyi, the Philippines said it continued to support Myanmar's democracy, which supposedly flourished even if there were "constraints" in Suu Kyi's role.

"Myanmar made important strides towards democratization in the past decade with the political presence of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, constitutional constraints on her key political role notwithstanding," the statement said.

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Suu Kyi, it added, is a "deeply and widely admired" democracy icon among Filipinos, and the Philippines recognizes her "unifying role . . . in the history of the country and Army her father founded."

"[The Philippines] has called for the complete restoration of the status quo ante, on which the full realization of this democratic process can only be achieved," the DFA said.

The 47-member forum met at Britain and the European Union’s request to consider a resolution calling for the release of Suu Kyi, and for UN monitors to be allowed to visit. It was adopted unanimously.

• UN rights envoy, US urge sanctions on Myanmar

In a letter read out to the council earlier on Friday, some 300 elected parliamentarians called for UN investigations into the "gross human rights violations" that they said the Myanmar military committed since its coup, including arrests.

The United Nations human rights investigator for Myanmar earlier urged the UN Security Council to consider imposing sanctions and arms embargoes, as 300 elected Myanmar lawmakers urged investigations into the military's seizure of power.

— With a report from Reuters