Duterte urged: Seek Saudi aid in Kuwait diplomatic row


ABS-CBN News
Posted at Apr 30 2018 03:29 PM | Updated as of Apr 30 2018 03:54 PM
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President Rodrigo Duterte should seek help from Saudi Arabia to ease diplomatic tensions with Kuwait over the treatment of Filipino workers, a community leader said Monday. 
Duterte said Sunday the temporary ban on Filipinos going to work in Kuwait was now permanent. 
This comes after Kuwaiti authorities last week ordered Manila's envoy to leave the country over videos of Philippine embassy staff helping workers flee allegedly abusive employers. 
The 2 nations had been negotiating a labor deal that Philippine officials said could result in the lifting of the temporary ban, but the recent escalation in tensions has put an agreement in doubt.
 
"Ang dapat na munang ayusin at gamutin dito ay iyung relasyon, hindi po iyung deployment agad," Dr. Celerino Umandap, chairman of the Ako OFW group, told radio DZMM. 
"Kaya mas naniniwala po kami na ang dapat gawin ng ating gobyerno ay humanap ng third country negotiator," he added. 
 
(The bilateral relationship should be fixed and remedied first, instead of prohibiting deployment. We believe that our government should find a third country negotiator.) 
Saudi Arabia, he said, could serve as negotiator since it is deemed as a "big brother" of other Arab states and has close ties with the Philippines. 
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, however, rejected the suggestion, saying there was no need for another country to mediate between the Philippines and Kuwait. 
"Hindi naman ganoon kalala ang problema," he reasoned in a separate DZMM interview. 
(The problem is not that grave.) 
Bello also claimed that the deployment ban in the rich Gulf state was temporary, contrary to the announcement of the President. 
Some 252,000 Filipinos work in Kuwait, many as maids. They are among over 2 million employed in the region, whose remittances are a lifeline to the Philippine economy, according to government data.

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