Duterte thanks Nethanyahu for helping PH during Marawi City siege

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, shakes hands with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte during their meeting in Jerusalem on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. (Ronen Zvulun/Pool Photo via AP)

JERUSALEM — President Rodrigo Duterte thanked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nethanyahu not only for Israel’s “benevolence” to Filipinos here, mostly caregivers, but also for aiding the Philippines in last year’s Marawi City siege.

In return, Nethanyahu thanked Filipino caregivers for taking care of his people, including his late father and late uncle as both men inked an agreement to protect these workers here from exploitation.

“I like many Israeli families are deeply moved by this show of humanity,” Nethanyahu told President Duterte.

The two leaders met in the Israeli prime minister’s office here on Monday, day 2 of President Duterte’s four-day official visit to Israel.

Speaking at their meeting, Nethanyahu said his government “deeply appreciate” Mr. Duterte’s visit, the first Filipino president to do so.

Nethanyahu said the three agreements the two countries signed were “important” as these were agreements in trade, science and caregiving.

He said he was among thousands of families who benefited from the care of Filipino caregivers as his father, who died at age 102, “received incredible care” from a “woman (caregiver from the Philippines who had “exceptional compassion and intelligence.”

“She took care of my father every day and when he passed away, she took care of his brother until he passed away,” Nethanyahu said.

On the agreement on Filipino caregivers, he said this will “knock off as much as 12,000 dollars from the cost of every caregiver.”

For his part, Mr. Duterte thanked Israel for treating Filipino workers here as “human beings.”

The President thanked the Israeli government for its “critical help” in winning the Marawi City siege last year.

“It (siege) could have dragged on were it not for the very substantial and crucial equipment which I am not also at liberty to say now. But it was a help to preserve the Republic of the Philippines and I thank you for that,” President Duterte told Nethanyahu.

The five-month long siege saw government troops battling to free Marawi City from the Abu Sayyaf and the Maute Group. /kga