While the protection of Filipinos in Myanmar is a major concern of the Philippine government, the death of democracy in Myanmar as a result of a military coup d’état should not be sidelined by the Duterte administration as a purely domestic matter. 

The ouster by the military of the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, one of democracy’s leading icons, is a global concern which the entire free world must condemn instantly and unequivocally. 

The nonchalant attitude of the Duterte administration confirms and defends the militarization of the government and its implementation of repressive policies like the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, continuing red-tagging and the unilateral abrogation of the UP-DND accord.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN