Solon prods DFA: Recall ambassador in OFWs ‘rescue mission’ in Kuwait

Muntinlupa City Rep. Ruffy Biazon. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

A lawmaker urged the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Tuesday to recall Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa, and hold other embassy officials accountable for the rescue operations of distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Kuwait.

Muntinlupa City Rep. Ruffy Biazon, a member of the House committee on foreign relations, said the government’s “decisive action” on this matter is imperative to avoid further clash in the Philippines-Kuwait relations.

“The Department of Foreign Affairs should take decisive action against the officials involved, lest this be construed as having the blessing of top leadership, which will only make matters worse,” Biazon in a statement on Tuesday.

“The Ambassador must be recalled and the other embassy officials responsible for the operation should be held accountable,” he added.

Biazon also denounced the “poorly planned, undiplomatic, and irresponsible” rescue mission which was video-taped and uploaded on Facebook last week.

While he recognized the likely good intent of the rescue operation, he lamented that such move by the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait could put the country’s relationship with Kuwait in jeopardy, and might even cause a “diplomatic conflict.”

“The rescue mission conducted by the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait could have led to an international incident that would have escalated the rift between the Philippines and Kuwait from the current tense relationship to one of diplomatic conflict,” Biazon said.

Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa (Photo from a PTV video)

Against diplomatic practices

Biazon also said the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait should have coordinated with the Kuwaiti government to avoid a “mis-encounter or misunderstanding,” noting that the rescue mission could have led to a “bloody incident if Kuwaiti police had chanced upon the rescue operation and mistaken it for a kidnapping.”

The congressman likewise urged the embassy officials in Kuwait to explain why they chose to go against diplomatic practices and established norms, rules, and conventions.

“The perception that this is a publicity stunt under the cover of a rescue mission comes from the fact that immediately after the rescue, a video of the ‘covert operation’ obviously taken by the raiding team itself was posted on social media for maximum publicity effect,” Biazon pointed out.

The lawmaker also pointed out that the operation seemed to be “a slap on the face of the host country, showing the impunity that the raiding team displayed within its territory.”

The Philippine Embassy in Kuwait has conducted rescue operations of distressed OFWs in the Gulf state, and videos of the “rescue mission” have been going viral on social media.

This incident prompted Kuwait to file a diplomatic protest, move for the expulsion of the Philippine ambassador, and order the arrest of two Philippine Embassy staff allegedly for enticing housemaids to run away from their employers.

The controversy erupted prior to President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to Kuwait to witness the signing of an agreement for the protection of OFWs in the Gulf state.

The agreement would have ended the labor ban Mr. Duterte imposed in February following the brutal murder of domestic helper Joanna Demafelis, whose body was discovered stuffed in a freezer a year after she had been reported missing.

READ: Kuwait protests PH rescue of housemaids

/kga

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