Total deployment ban to Kuwait sought amid latest OFW death

The chairman of ACTS-OFW party-list on Friday called on the government to impose a total deployment ban on household workers to Kuwait following the killing of another Filipina domestic worker there.

In a statement, ACTS-OFW chairman John Bertiz said the total deployment ban should be implemented "until the provisions of and conditions set under the existing labor agreement with Kuwait are fully implemented."

Bertiz issued the statement a day after Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the Philippines will impose a partial deployment ban to Kuwait to protest the killing of Jeanalyn Villavende allegedly by the wife of her employer.

"I therefore urge our concerned agencies to put into test the labor agreement between the Philippine and Kuwait as we pursue justice for Villavende’s untimely demise," Bertiz said.

"It is easy to jump into a paroxysm of inquiries following death of OFWs but we cannot be amiss with our duties in according enough security and safety guarantees they deserve."

Following Villavende's killing, Philippine labor attaches and their foreign counterparts should "immediately" activate the Joint Monitoring Committee to monitor the investigation and prosecution of the people behind her death as well as those behind the abuses of other OFWs, Bertiz said. —KBK, GMA News