Statement of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr.
On Myanmar
15 January 2022
I adopt as my own what Norway’s foreign minister Anniken Huitfeldt said about the situation in Myanmar, and skip the quotation marks:
“I condemn today's sentencing to four years in prison of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. The military regime is using the judicial system to silence political opponents and crush the National League for Democracy.
“Nearly a year has passed since the military coup in Myanmar. The situation has deteriorated sharply in all areas of society over the past year. I am deeply concerned about the suffering of the civilian population.
“I reiterate our calls for the military leadership to release all political prisoners, uphold democratic institutions and processes, refrain from violence, and fully respect human rights and the rule of law. We also call on the military leadership to participate in an inclusive dialogue and resume the democratic transition process.”
I will work with ASEAN colleagues in the next few weeks to find measures to ease the suffering of the people of Myanmar, and push for dialogue among all stakeholders, most especially Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and substantial progress in the Five-Point Consensus of ASEAN.
I welcome the visit of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to Myanmar, and the headways he achieved. He deserves wholehearted support as the man who played a major role in bringing to an end the mass murders and suffering in the nationwide death camp of Kampuchea. That regime was supported by two major world powers for intellectual and morally incomprehensible reasons; all of which shrank into geopolitical triviality and moral horror. Hun Sen joined anti-Khmer Rouge forces and liberated Vietnam’s army to put an end to the mass killing (two million is the conservative estimate), brought the main perpetrators to justice, and restored the ancient and kindly kingdom of Cambodia whose light and life were snuffed out as collateral damage in the Vietnam War.
The Special Envoy’s participation in the ceasefire talks with the Ethnic Armed Organizations is a welcome development. But these talks must include all, not just a select few. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi must be there, DESPITE her conviction. The armed forces of Myanmar have nothing to fear, and much to gain, from the democracy it introduced to Myanmar by stepping back nor by its restoration by doing so again. Suu Kyi is indispensable in a democratic restoration that will pose no threat of anarchy, dissolution, and civil conflict.
The Special Envoy’s access to all parties concerned must not be subject to any conditionality. Most especially, the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus must not be tied to any roadmap, for the Consensus is the only one agreed to by the ASEAN Leaders during that meeting in Jakarta in April 2021.
The Philippines will also work with Norway, as President of the Security Council for this month, in finding ways to end the killings in Myanmar that have dragged on for a year, far too long for that country’s suffering people. END