PHILIPPINES RESPONDS TO TRAGEDY IN BURMA

UNCLAS MANILA 001105 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL RP BM SUBJECT: PHILIPPINES RESPONDS TO TRAGEDY IN BURMA REF: A. MANILA 690 ¶B. MANILA 654 ¶1. SUMMARY: In the wake of the devastating destruction wrought May 2-3 by Cyclone Nargis in Burma, the Philippine government and the country's Red Cross affiliate are moving to offer assistance, while national media have called on the ruling Burmese military junta to cease its resistance to international relief efforts as the humanitarian crisis worsens for cyclone survivors. Philippine protesters at the Burmese Embassy in Manila have underscored calls for the junta to allow unrestricted entry into Burma of international relief. END SUMMARY. ¶2. In a May 7 statement from Malacanang Palace, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has directed Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to send a contingent of doctors and medical assistants to Burma. Ermita outlined that the Department of Health was already in communication with Burmese authorities in order to determine which medicines were needed most critically, and he indicated that the medical team and its supplies would depart for Burma within 48 hours. ¶3. The Philippine Senate on May 6 unanimously passed a resolution expressing its sympathy and solidarity with the people of Burma. Foreign Secretary Romulo said that the administration was likewise extending its sympathies to the Burmese people, while dispelling fears that any Philippine overseas workers had been killed or injured. Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) Chair Senator Richard Gordon announced May 7 that the PNRC would dispatch aid to Burmese storm victims, and he called on Filipinos to look beyond national, religious, and racial boundaries to help the Red Cross alleviate suffering in Burma. ¶4. An editorial in the leading daily Philippine Star highlighted the scope of the calamity, and was sharply critical of the Burmese junta's inability to deal with the tragedy. The paper cited how the regime has built an army of 400,000 that, while widely employed in the brutal repression of pro-democracy forces, lacked emergency supplies, mobile hospitals, boats, and other basic requirements for disaster relief. The editorial went on to point out that the junta's years of isolationism, coupled with its lack of emphasis on social services and community institutions, would intensify the scale of the disaster and lead to more deaths as the days dragged on. ¶5. Protesters marching outside the Burmese Embassy in Manila's upscale Makati area demanded that Burma postpone the junta's planned constitutional referendum, and permit international relief workers unfettered entry into Burma and access to storm-ravaged areas. Spokesperson Egoy Bans of the Free Burma Coalition decried the ruling junta's preoccupation with the referendum, even as those who survived the cyclone struggled to stay alive in the absence of potable water, food, and shelter. KENNEY