Wu Den-yih (吳敦義, fourth from left)

Taipei, Nov. 24 (CNA) The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) was scrambling late Friday night to rearrange Chairman Wu Den-yih's (吳敦義) itinerary for an upcoming trip to the Philippines after his visa for Thailand was approved at the last minute, allowing him to visit both countries as originally scheduled.

Lee Ming-hsien (李明賢), director of the KMT's Culture and Communications Committee, said Wu's visa application to Thailand, submitted two weeks ago, was approved just before Friday at 5 p.m.

Lee had said earlier Friday that Wu would not travel to Thailand because of the visa snafu and would depart on Saturday afternoon for the Philippines on a five-day trip.

But after Wu obtained a visa to Thailand, his team revised the trip's itinerary, making it an eight-day trip with three days in the Philippines and five days in Thailand.

There was no official confirmation as of late Friday night, however, that Wu will indeed be traveling to both countries because his plane tickets for Thailand had been canceled.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand said it will do its best to accommodate the KMT chairman's schedule and receive him in Thailand should he choose to visit.

Wu's trip is part of the celebrations for the 123rd anniversary of the founding of the KMT.

(By Liu Lee-jung, Liu Te-chan and Kuan-lin Liu)
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