High-level PH team to visit Kuwait next week in bid to normalize strained ties
A high-level Philippine team is scheduled to visit Kuwait next week in hopes of trying to normalize the country's relations with the Gulf state.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III and Presidential spokesman Harry Roque will be part of the delegation that will travel to Kuwait on May 7 amid the diplomatic row over the rescue of distressed Filipinos in Kuwait.
“We are hoping that we can help normalize our bilateral relations,” Roque said over government radio.
“We also hope that the memorandum of agreement will be signed once our relations with our friend Kuwait have normalized,” he added, referring to the proposed agreement providing additional protection for Filipino workers in Kuwait.
Ambassador Renato Villa, the first Filipino diplomat to be expelled from a foreign country, was expected to return home Wednesday after being declared “persona non grata” by the Kuwait over the video showing the rescue of a Filipino domestic helper from the house of her employer.
Villa was earlier given one week by the Kuwaiti government to leave his post after the controversial video of the rescue mission surfaced in the media.
President Duterte recently decided to halt his tirade against Kuwait, citing talks to resolve a simmering diplomatic row. Duterte, in his Labor Day address last Tuesday, said he was pursuing a "soft landing" approach on the conflict with Kuwait, admitting there was "so much" at stake.
"I’m not going to attack because we have ongoing talks," the President said in Visayan during the Labor Day celebration in Cebu City.
"I’ve decided not to add to anything because they are still there. So it’s just soft landing for me, just soft landing. I’m not going to carelessly give remarks because so much is at stake," he added.
The Philippines and Kuwait are currently embroiled in a diplomatic conflict following the release of a video showing embassy staff helping Filipino workers escape from their alleged abusive employers.
Kuwait, angered by the viral video of the clandestine rescue that allegedly violated its sovereignty, has ordered the Philippine ambassador to leave the country and recalled its envoy to Manila.
The President, who earlier authorized a deployment ban to Kuwait over reports of abuses, has also encouraged Filipino workers to come home and promised to find other jobs for them.
Duterte has also vowed to pursue all avenues to boost the level of protection for Filipino workers abroad, especially those in Kuwait. "We must also make sure that the necessary protection for the OFWs leaving for Kuwait are in place before they are allowed to be deployed,” he added.
Ban should stay Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Wednesday said the Philippine government’s deployment ban to Kuwait that President Duterte has ordered should stay until the Gulf State repeals and or amends the “kafala” system prevailing within their country and in other Arab nations.
Escudero pointed out that some sectors in the international community have actually called for the abolition of the ‘kafala” system or a type of sponsorship used to monitor migrant laborers working primarily in the construction and domestic sectors in Lebanon, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has been viewed as a form of “modern-day slavery.”
The senator said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and its envoys should actively push for the repeal of this system in Kuwait.
“It’s a unique system found only in Gulf States. Basically, some people have called it modern day slavery. Our own Constitution prohibits involuntary servitude,” Escudero explained in an interview over ANC Headstart.
“But in practice, what it has actually become is, these governments basically delegated the regulation and supervision of migrant workers to civilians by giving them certain powers and prerogatives over these migrant workers,” he pointed out.
“In fact, most of these Arab countries don’t even consider it as a labor issue. They’re not even under their labor department. If the Kafalah system is implemented… they view this really, not as a labor issue but as a security issue.
“That’s why whenever there is a conflict, they always take the side of their own national because they are performing delegated function for security purposes,” he said.
Escudero said these Arab nations have previously and repeatedly promised to abrogate the “kafala” system but “so far nothing has happened.”
“They have promised – I’ve seen many articles in various international publications – that they will abolish the kafala system. They will remove it, they will correct it, but so far nothing has happened,” he said.
That is why, he said, he is supportive of the Duterte government’s brazen move to launch a rescue mission of distressed migrant Filipino workers in Kuwait since this is the first time the Philippine embassy has flexed its muscles to protect OFWs in an Arab nation.
“I think it’s just right for the Philippine government to do something along these lines. And if you’re simply complaining about rescuing a laborer without permission, what about hurting our nationals? What about the killing of our nationals? What about considering our nationals as slaves because you don’t allow them to leave? And then when they do try to leave, you file a case against them and put them to jail for as long as six months?” Escudero pointed out.
Envoy returns Apart from Villa’s expulsion, Kuwaiti authorities also arrested four Filipino individuals who allegedly took part in the rescue and issued three arrest warrants, including that of a ranking diplomat who reportedly participated in the rescue without proper accreditation from the oil-rich Arab state.
The DFA has remained tight-lipped on the details of Villa’s return as well as the arrest warrants against the remaining three unidentified Filipino diplomats who are believed to be from the Office of the Undersecretary Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA).
OUMWA is headed by Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola, a known protégé of Cayetano.
On Tuesday, Kuwait Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah acknowledged that the incident “is largely a misunderstanding and exaggeration of some minor or one-off cases” but also emphasized that they are still waiting for the “handover” of the three individuals who are believed to be holed up inside the Philippine embassy premises to allow them to carry out the investigation.