Myanmar PM sets RP visit

Prime Minister Soe Win of Myanmar will be the first foreign leader to visit the country this year.

Soe’s one-day visit on Feb. 20 will be capped by a luncheon hosted by President Arroyo at Malacañang’s State Dining Hall.

Malacañang and foreign affairs officials led by Chief of Protocol Linglingay Lacanlale met their counterparts from Myanmar yesterday to finalize Soe’s itinerary.

Soe was appointed prime minister of Myanmar in October 2004 by Than Shwe, chairman of the military-dominated State Peace and Development Council.

Other foreign leaders scheduled to visit the Philippines this year are President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, President Hu Jintao of China and United Nations Secretary -General Kofi Annan.

One of the newest members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, when a coup brought down the democratically elected government of Prime Minister U Nu.

Prominent dissident and Nobel Prize Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is leading a non-violent struggle for a return to civilian rule in Myanmar. — Marichu Villanueva