Duterte not keen on implementing deployment ban to Kuwait

President Rodrigo Duterte said he is not keen on having a deployment ban to Kuwait as justice is being done in the case of the murder of overseas Filipino worker Jeanelyn Villavende.

"The situation is quite different. We do not see apathy there. And the police authorities there in Kuwait acted swiftly, and they have arrested the spouses," Duterte said in a television interview on Friday.

"Kita ba naman there were arrests made and there's an investigation going on. Apparently, justice is being done," the President added.

"I'm not really keen on moving people out," he said.

Villavende, who was working as a domestic helper in Kuwait, was allegedly killed by her employer last month, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Malacañang decried Villavende's death as a “clear disregard” of a 2018 agreement between the Philippine and Kuwaiti government for the protection of OFWs. 

Following the incident, the Department of Labor and Employment implemented a partial deployment ban to Kuwait covering first-time domestic helpers.

The Bureau of Immigration started implementing the said ban earlier this week.

House Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs senior vice chairman Eric Pineda and ACTS-OFW party-list chairman John Bertiz however said a total deployment ban to Kuwait should have been implemented.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines also called for a total deployment ban of household service workers to Kuwait saying the country is not taking the plight of Filipino workers seriously. —KG, GMA News