MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte will skip a summit of leaders of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries in Jakarta this weekend, his spokesman said on Thursday.

"Ang Presidente po, hindi personally mag-a-attend. But I'm sure, that our Department of Foreign Affairs will be there," Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque said in a press briefing.

(The President will not personally attend.)

He did not say why.

United Nations special envoy Christine Schraner Burgener will go to Jakarta on Thursday to meet senior members of Southeast Asian governments searching for a path to end bloodshed and restore stability in Myanmar, according to three Reuters sources.

At a closed-door meeting of the Security Council on April 1, Burgener warned if "collective action" was not taken by the international community to overturn the coup then a "bloodbath is imminent", Reuters reported.

Myanmar’s army seized power from the democratically elected civilian government on Feb.1, plunging the Southeast Asian nation into turmoil and cracking down on mass protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement with brutal force, killing more than 700 people, a monitoring group said.

The crisis has brought the banking system to a standstill, shuttering many branches, leaving businesses unable to make payments and customers unable to withdraw cash.

The Philippine government has called for the release of Myanmar's detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

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• Filipinos in Myanmar urged to stay at home amid political turmoil

— With a report from Reuters

Video courtesy of PTV