Palace: Arroyo keeping tabs on developments on Suu Kyi

MANILA, Philippines – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is keeping tabs on developments surrounding the case against Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Malacañang said. Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Mrs. Arroyo is “concerned" about the developments on Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest and faces trial in Myanmar. “Of course the President is concerned about the latest development on Aung San Suu Kyi.  She is also closely monitoring her case together with the United States and to her pro-democratic allies," Remonde said on government-run dzRB radio. Likewise, the Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights (CHR) denounced the new charges pressed against Suu Kyi, a radio dzBB report said Sunday. The report quoted the CHR as saying that the Nobel laureate should be immediately released. Myanmar’s military junta last Thursday charged Suu Kyi with breaking the terms of her years-long detention – just two weeks before she was due to be released from house arrest on May 27. Suu Kyi has already spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention without trial for her nonviolent promotion of democracy. World leaders, human rights groups, and fellow Nobel laureates condemned the move as an attempt by the military junta to silence its chief opponent ahead of next year's election — which will be the first since Suu Kyi's party won the 1990 elections that the junta refused to recognize. Remonde said Mrs. Arroyo did not take up the matter in Indonesia, at the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security Leaders’ Summit in Manado. He said Mrs. Arroyo was in high spirits after taking part in the Manado summit because of the “respect" she got from fellow leaders there. “Di yata pinagusapan ang bagay na 'yan. Pero alam natin ang position ni Pangulong Arroyo [They did not discuss the matter. But we know Misis Arroyo’s position on the issue]," he said. He said Mrs. Arroyo even sponsored a resolution during a recent Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit asking the Burmese government to free Suu Kyi. Last April, Mrs. Arroyo urged Myanmar’s military junta to free Suu Kyi from house arrest next month as a gesture of national reconciliation. She made the appeal in a meeting with Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein on the sidelines of an aborted Asian summit in Thailand, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. “As a neighbor of Myanmar, the Philippines has a deep sense of friendship with the people of Myanmar. We only have your country and your people’s welfare at heart. This is the single, most concrete piece of advice and experience I can share with you," a DFA statement quoted her as saying. - with Sophia Dedace, GMANews.TV