By EDD K. USMAN
Twitter: @edd1819, Instagram: @bluestar0910, Facebook: SDN — Science, Digital & Current Affairs
(SDN) — KUWAIT has just been saved from a “total deployment ban” of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
President Rodrigo R. Duterte last week approved the recommendation of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to impose extreme measure on Kuwait, apparently a punishment for the killing of household workers, or domestic workers, in the past working in the Arab country.
The latest to be killed allegedly by her employers is Jeanelyn Villavende, of Norala, South Cotabato, Mindanao, Southern Philippines. An autopsy conducted by the National Bureau Investigation (NBI) showed the OFW could have been raped. She was also tortured, her head was bashed with a blunt instrument.
Related story: ‘Kuwaitis Liars, Good-for-Nothing’, Says Bello; OFW Total Ban On
This latest cruelty on the Villavende committed by her female employer prompted an irate Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to recommend a total stop to sending OFWs to Kuwait, domestic workers and skilled workers alike. Duterte approved the recommendation.
Bello even characterized Kuwaitis as “liars and good-for-nothing”, apparently for the inhumanity and for a deceptive autopsy report sent by the government of Kuwait which stated only that the OFW died of “physical injuries.”
Just days later, another twist in the tragic saga of OFWs in the Middle Eastern state may have jolted those who supported the total ban.
The national government has stood down on the total deployment ban as the President’s troubleshooter for OFW Affairs, Secretary Abdullah “Dabs” Mama-o was meeting with OFWs in Kuwait City.
Mama-o, the presidential adviser on Muslim Concerns and OFW Affairs, said he received a text message or SMS from Senator Christopher “Bong” Go that the total ban “has now been changed to a temporary ban applicable only to domestic helpers” prompted by the President’s discussions with his advisers on the total ban’s repercussions.
Dr. Dimapuno “Jun” Alonto Datu-Ramos,” director of the Bureau of External Relations of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF-BER) revealed this on his Facebook updates.
He said the President’s troubleshooter “met with some Filipino workers in Kuwait” on January 19 “to discuss the total deployment ban.”
Related story: US Hawks Beat War Drums; PHL Seeks Iran Assurances
No details were revealed on the meeting’s outcome.
Mama-o also attended a meeting with the Deputy Foreign Minister of Kuwait Khaled Al-Jarallah that also discussed the total ban.
Earlier, the Moro public official also met with Iranian officials to relay the Philippine government’s concerns on the safety of the more than 1,000 Filipino community in the Islamic Republic of Iran as the country’s tensions with the United States appear to escalate recently.
It can be recalled that America President Donald Trump ordered the recent assassination that killed Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani, head of the Al-Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) while en route to Baghdad, Iraq, airport.
Iran retaliated with a barrage of missile attack on Iraqi military bases housing American soldiers.
In Tehran, Iran, Mama-o met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to relay Duterte’s message about the safety of Filipinos in his country.
The President earlier said he will take the side of the United States if any Filipino is hurt in Iran. (SDN)