Palace: Total deployment ban to Kuwait remains unless MOA fully implemented

Published January 16, 2020 2:25pm

Malacañang on Thursday said the total deployment ban to Kuwait would stay unless the terms of the labor agreement that ensures the safety and welfare of Filipino workers there are followed.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the deployment of workers to Kuwait has been suspended indefinitely, which came as a result of the inadequate autopsy report on the killing of Filipina maid Jeanelyn Villavende by her employer in Kuwait. 

“Until such time [that] the terms of the MOA [memorandum of agreement] are incorporated in each labor contract between the employer and the employee, the [total deployment] ban remains,” Panelo said at a news conference.

“We are asking them to implement it.”

The Philippines entered into an agreement with the Kuwaiti government after the deaths of several Filipinos in the Gulf state, including Joanna Demafelis, who was found dead in a freezer in 2018.

Inked for the protection of Filipino workers in Kuwait, the agreement was said to provide that overseas Filipino workers should have a day off and at least seven hours of sleep daily and their passports free from confiscation by their employers.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III earlier said the autopsy report of the National Bureau of Investigation on Villavende’s death found that she was sexually abused and killed. 

However, the autopsy report prepared by Kuwait’s health ministry did not indicate that Villavende was possibly raped.

The government said the total deployment ban covers household service workers, semi-skilled workers, skilled workers and professionals, including crew changes and shore leaves of Filipino seafarers in Kuwait.

Exempted from the ban were skilled workers and professionals who are categorized as balik-manggagawa or returning workers and those who will be exempted by the Labor Secretary. — RSJ, GMA News