Duterte to repatriate Pinoys in Kuwait within 72 hours
Filipino workers in Kuwait who want to go home may be repatriated within the next 72 hours, President Rodrigo Duterte said yesterday.
The President said he would request flag carriers Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific to send the migrant workers home within 72 hours.
“So everyone who wants to come home, I said to Secretary Bello, those who want to be repatriated, with or without money, I will ask PAL and Cebu Pacific to provide the transportation. I want them out of the country those who want to go out in 72 hours,” the President said, referring to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III.
“We will count our lives by the hours because apparently, every hour, there is a suffering and agony, brutality committed by Filipinos,” the President said.
In a press conference in his home province Davao City, Duterte made the decision to repatriate the migrant workers following the discovery of the body of Filipino domestic worker Joanna Daniela Dimapilis in a freezer inside an abandoned apartment in Kuwait.
Duterte said he could no longer stomach the persistent abuses that have pushed some Filipino migrant workers in Kuwait to commit suicide.
To date, there are more than 250,000 Filipinos currently residing in Kuwait.
“Every abuse committed against an OFW is an affront against us as a sovereign nation. Do not give us back a bothered worker or a mutilated corpse,” he said.
“We do not intend to offend any government or anyone, but if ban is what is needed, then let it be so. The ban continues today and I don’t know until what time. I declared it early this morning. Son of a b****, I cannot stomach this. It is totally, totally unacceptable to me,” he added.
He pleaded to Kuwait to stop the abuses of Filipinos.
“We do not seek special treatment or privileges for our workers but we do expect respect for their dignity and basic human rights. Keep them free from harm. I implore you. I ask all Arab people - the Filipino is no slave to anyone, anywhere and everywhere,” he added.