ROMULO VISIT TO MYANMAR AN IMPORTANT STEP
IN RESTORING DEMOCRACY THERE

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today expressed the hope that Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulos visit to Myanmar this week will yield positive results in terms of boosting the efforts to restore democracy and the release of opposition leader Aung Suu Kyi.

Pimentel said the words of Romulo in persuading Myanmars military rulers to stop the curtailment of the civil rights of the Burmese people will carry a lot of weight considering that the Philippines will chair the forthcoming summit of the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to be held in Cebu City in December.

The minority leader said he looks forward to a fruitful meeting between Romulo and Aung Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest despite the military juntas commitment to take steps towards restoring democracy in Myanmar as a member-country of ASEAN.

The projected visit of Foreign Affairs Secretary Romulo with Aung Suu Kyi in Yangoon, Myanmar, if it materializes, is a breakthrough in the tough stance of the Myanmar military rulers of refusing visitors to the imprisoned pre-democracy leader, he said.

Pimentel, vice chairman of the ASEAN Parliamentary Caucus on Myanmar, said Secretary Romulo has the support of the senators who desire to see the road map to democracy restored to Myanmar.

Although late in the day, the restoration of democratic processes in Myanmar would heal the wounds inflicted upon the civilian population of that hapless land by the military junta, he said.