Drilon: Gov’t should back ambassador on Kuwait rescue issue
The government should stand by Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa amid the gulf state's displeasure over a video showing the rescue of distressed overseas Filipino workers, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Tuesday.
Drilon said he supports Villa for protecting the interests of the Filipinos in Kuwait.
“I support Ambassador Villa and what he’s doing, because it’s not easy to be in the situation, and I support him fully. He’s there to protect our interest and the interest of our Filipino workers, and forced by necessity he did what he did for the welfare of our Filipino compatriots. I support him for what he did,” he told reporters.
He added that will oppose any plan to recall to Villa.
“I will object to any plan to recall him. Yes [we should defend him]. We should not recall him,” he said.
He said the protest from the Kuwaiti authorities is to be expected and that the government should just explain the situation.
“That’s expected, but we can explain the action of our ambassador, in the same manner that we protested—I assume we did—when our compatriot was found frozen,” he said, referring to the case of Joanna Demafelis, whose body was found ina freezer in an abandoned apartment a year after she went missing.
“That’s normal in diplomacy,” he added.
Kuwait served protest notes on Villa over what it called “inappropriate behavior” from Philippine diplomatic staff who were seen in a video rescuing distressed Filipinos. The video came from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano apologized to the Kuwaiti government on Tuesday.
“I apologize to my counterpart, we apologize to the Kuwaiti government, Kuwaiti people and leaders of Kuwait if they were offended by some actions taken by the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait,” he told reporters.
Cayetano earlier said that the rescue was undertaken with the cooperation of the Kuwait authorities.
'Why quarrel?'
Senator Cynthia Villar, however, believes Villa should be recalled to avoid further conflict.
“Kung me problema i-recall na lang, palitan na lang ng iba. Why will you quarrel ba? Ano ba yung reason to quarrel. Mahirap na nasa bansa tayo nila tapos makikipag-away tayo d’un. so i-recall na lang, palitan nang iba para walang gulo,” she told reporters in a separate interview.
“Huwag nang ipagpilitan, may bad blood na ‘yun e,” she added.
The senator said she understands the aggressiveness of the DFA officers in conducting the rescue operations.
“Kaya nagkakaganun sila because of what happened before, kaya aggressive sila pag me nagko-complain kasi ang pagkakamali n’ung araw, namatay na, one year nang patay na nasa freezer wala pa silang ginagawa. Ngayon naman masyado silang agressive. We can understand why they are agressive kasi napapagalitan na sila, andaming nangyayari na hindi nila inaksyunan,” she said.
Villar, however, thumbed down the posting of the video of operation to social media sites.
“You can save [people] naman but you really don’t have to make a big thing out of it, ‘di ba?” she said.
She said the Kuwaiti government could be sensitive to the issue because of the bad publicity they got when the case of Demafelis surfaced.
“Ang Kuwait very sensitive kasi I’m sure that’s a lot of publicity against them, that’s a lot of publicity kaya mina-mind nila,” she said. — BM, GMA News
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