We are keeping a close watch on events in Myanmar

We are closely following developments in Myanmar, for a number of reasons.

It is a brother nation with which we share many things in common. We are neighbors in our corner of the globe, a group of nations in Southeast Asia on the southwestern part of the vast Pacific Ocean. Myanmar, with over 650,000 square kilometers has more than double the size of the Philippine land area of a little over 298,000 square kilometers. But our population of some 110 million is more than double Myanmar’s 54.5 million.

We were both taken over by colonial powers. Myanmar, which used to be known as Burma, was ruled by the British from 1824 to 1948. The Philippines was a colony of Spain for three and a half centuries, and of the United States for half a century until 1946. Today, we are both proud members of the ten-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).