Palace: OFW deployment ban to Kuwait stays
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2020 07:00:21 +0000
THE total deployment ban to Kuwait stays, Malacañang said on Tuesday, even after murder charges were filed against the employers of slain Filipina domestic worker Jeanelyn Villavende.
Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo made the statement after Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd disclosed in a Senate hearing on Tuesday that he has been informed of the filing of a criminal case against Villavende’a killers.
“Okay ‘yun. Diba yun ang hinihingi natin, justice, na mademanda sila (That’s okay. That’s what we’re asking for, justice, and that they should be charged). We welcome that,” Panelo said during a Palace press briefing.
“Ganun pa din temporary ‘yun ban (So it will stay because the ban is just temporary),” he added.
Villavende’s death in the hands of her employer’s wife has sparked outrage in Manila, prompting the government to impose the deployment ban.
Malacañang called on Kuwait to fully implement the labor protection agreement or else the deployment ban of Filipino workers would stay.
Based on initial reports, Villavende was was dead when brought to a hospital after being beaten. Attending nurses reported that she was “black and blue”.
Bello had initially received a two-sentence report of Kuwait’s autopsy saying Villavende died of “physical injuries,” prompting Philippine authorities to conduct its own autopsy, which then showed the migrant worker was sexually abused and tortured.
Reports quoted Villavende’s family in Norala town, South Cotabato as saying they have rejected more than P50 million in blood money being offered by the Kuwaiti suspects to settle the case.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Tedoro “Teddy Boy” Locsin Jr. also reiterated that the government would never accept money in exchange for justice.
“I renounce and reject any offer of blood money for her torture/murder. I want two lives for the life they took,” Locsin said in a tweet.
Locsin said that the “topnotch lawyer” hired by the foreign affairs department was also not authorized to suggest or accept blood money.
“If I catch anyone in (Department of Foreign Affairs) making that suggestion they’re fired. I will not accept an improvement in Kuwait’s labor standards either,” he added. CATHERINE S. VALENTE