Press Release
October 26, 2007

DFA URGED TO REFUSE THE ISSUANCE OF VISA TO MORE THAN 420 OFFICIALS OF MYANMAR JUNTA AND THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today formally asked the Arroyo government to ban the entry of top officials of the military dictatorial regime of Myanmar and immediate members of their families from entering the Philippines by denying their applications for travel visa.

Pimentel said the move is part of the steps of the international community to pressure Myanmar's military junta to stop the ruthless repression of the human rights of the Burmese people and to fulfill its commitment, as member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to implement democratic reforms including the release of opposition leaders from detention and the restoration of the national parliament.

The minority leader submitted to Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo a list of 423 top junta officials and members of their families who should be covered by the ban on the issuance of Philippine visa.

In a letter to Romulo, dated October 25, Pimentel reminded him that he was in the forefront of the peaceful struggle for freedom in the Philippines that eventually ousted the martial law dictatorship.

"The rationale behind the peaceful moves we undertook against the Marcos regime holds true as regards the recent protests of the Burmese people - that now include the pacifist Buddhist monks - against the military junta," he said.

Pimentel also told the foreign affairs secretary that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is right in condemning the violent crackdown of the peaceful protests by pro-democracy groups in Myanmar. "Perhaps, we can follow up her and your verbal denunciations by refusing the entry to our country of the top officials of the ruling junta and their families until the junta abides by the well-nigh universal call to stop brutalizing its own people," he said.

Among the Myanmar junta officials included in the proposed ban list submitted by Pimentel are Vice-Senior General Maung Aye, Gen. Shwe Mann, Gen. Soe Win (prime minister), Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, Lt. Gen. Tin Aung Myint, Lt. Gen. Kyaw Win, Lt. Gen. Ye Myint and Lt. Gen. Aung Htwe, all top officials of the State Peace and Development Council.

Pimentel said that all the personalities and the immediate families of the military junta have reportedly been placed under the "financial sanctions" of Australia.

"We hope that the inability of ASEAN as ASEAN to come out more forcefully against the brutal repression of the military junta of the human rights of the people's of Burma would not preclude the action - or any other appropriate measures -- that has been suggested," he said.

Earlier, the Philippine delegation to the 117th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) general assembly in Geneva successfully pushed through a resolution asking the United Nations Security Council "to take appropriate measures to end the violence in Myanmar" and for its military authorities "to respect the democratic rights and liberties of its people."

Pimentel, a member of the RP delegation to the IPU meet, said the resolution also asked the UN to ban arms sale and economic aid to Myanmar unless its authorities stop its repression of the Burmese people.

The same resolution urged ASEAN to warn Myanmar that it would suspend its membership in ASEAN unless it cooperates with UN moves to stop the atrocities of the regime."

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