Duterte backs total deployment ban to Kuwait —Palace


President Rodrigo Duterte supports the decision of labor officials to impose a total deployment ban to Kuwait following the death of Filipino household worker Jeanelyn Villavende, Malacañang said Friday.
“The Palace wishes to inform the public that President Duterte has approved the recommendation of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III on the total deployment ban of Filipino workers in Kuwait,” presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.
Panelo maintained that the ban would remain until the memorandum of agreement between the two countries that was signed in 2018 is “fully implemented and the terms contained therein are incorporated in every labor contract” of overseas Filipino workers.
Skilled workers and professionals who have unexpired contracts and are set to return to Kuwait as well as those who will be cleared by the Secretary of Labor are not covered by the total deployment ban, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.
“Those who will come home for a vacation and has an existing contract are still allowed to travel to Kuwait, however, workers with new contracts will be covered by the ban. This move is nothing less than for the protection of our workers,” Bello said in a statement on Thursday.
Highlighting the main cause of the total ban, Bello said that 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. —KBK, GMA News
By VIRGIL LOPEZ, GMA News

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