US embassy cable - 04RANGOON249

C O N F I D E N T I A L RANGOON 000249 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE ALSO FOR EAP/BCLTV; CINPAC FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/2014 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, BM, RP 
SUBJECT: FILIPINO ENVOY MAKES LOW-KEY VISIT TO BURMA 
 
Classified By: COM Carmen Martinez for Reasons 1.5 (b,d) 
 
1. (C) Summary:  Filipino Foreign Secretary Albert made her 
debut visit to Burma February 18-19 to get to know her 
Burmese counterpart and to resurrect a moribund 
Burma-Philippines Joint Commission.  Her public remarks were 
laudatory of regime road map efforts.  However, she did not 
meet with the Head of State, and the SPDC, which may view the 
Philippines as close to the U.S., gave the visit perfunctory 
treatment.  This was yet another missed opportunity by an 
ASEAN country to encourage the SPDC to make progress on a 
political dialogue.  End Summary. 
 
2. (U) Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Domingo 
Albert, at the tail end of a swing through several mainland 
ASEAN countries, visited Rangoon February 18-19.  During her 
24-hour visit Secretary Albert met Prime Minister General 
Khin Nyunt and Foreign Minister U Win Aung.  Albert will 
return to Rangoon in April to participate in a meeting of the 
Burma-Philippines Joint Commission that will address 
cooperation in human resources development, trade, and 
agriculture. 
 
3. (C) The Philippines Ambassador to Burma, Phoebe Gomez, 
told the COM on Feb. 25 that a primary objective of the visit 
was for Albert to "get comfortable" with her Burmese 
counterpart, U Win Aung, prior to a March ASEAN retreat in 
Hanoi.  Gomez said she encouraged the visit as a way to kick 
start the Joint Commission, which was set up in 1997 during a 
visit of President Ramos but to date has not convened. 
Ambassador Gomez also allowed that she had pushed hard for 
this visit as she "needed to do something" in Burma, 
observing that other ASEAN countries, especially Thailand, 
were "very active here." 
 
4. (C) Ambassador Gomez said that the GOP needs to establish 
"one to one" channels of communication with the Burmese, 
claiming that her government faced difficulties here because 
the Philippines is treated differently from the other ASEAN 
countries due to a close relationship with the United States. 
 The Ambassador said she did not press for a meeting between 
her Secretary and SPDC Chairman Than Shwe.  Gomez intimated 
to COM that she was afraid that a meeting might not be 
granted because of the perceived relationship with the U.S. 
or because the Burmese may be waiting for May Filipino 
presidential elections to see what the outcome could mean for 
the Philippines-Burma bilateral relationship. 
 
5. (U) According to the government-controlled "Myanmar 
Times," in a February 19 interview Secretary Albert said that 
the Philippines supports the SPDC's road map for democracy. 
The newspaper quoted the Foreign Secretary as saying "Both 
bilaterally and regionally we are good partners... in ASEAN 
we help each other to ensure that the vision of (a leader of 
a member state) could be implemented."  Ambassador Gomez said 
the remarks attributed to Albert were accurate, but the 
Filipino DCM told us separately that the quote was not 
exactly in line with the Philippines statement issued after 
the Bali ASEAN summit last October. 
 
Comment: What Ally? 
 
6. (C) We view this visit as another missed opportunity by a 
key ASEAN country to encourage the SPDC to make progress on a 
political dialogue with the democratic opposition.  Part of 
the problem may be Ambassador Gomez.  She has always been a 
little too close for comfort to the regime, hanging with the 
generals' wives and at times appearing to be significantly 
out of line with Manila's Burma policy.  Gomez avoids the 
opposition groups like the plague and has never tried to meet 
with ASSK, even when other ASEAN ambassadors paid ASSK a 
courtesy call in May 2002.  She told us previously that she 
did not like late Foreign Secretary Ople's critical stance on 
Burma, which made life "uncomfortable" for her in Rangoon. 
End Comment. 
Martinez