Villanueva questions PH-Kuwait labor pact after latest OFW murder

Sen. Joel Villanueva. INQUIRER file photo

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Joel Villanueva has questioned the implementation of a labor agreement between the Philippines and Kuwait meant to protect overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from abuses following another killing of a domestic worker there.

“We are outraged that another family has to grieve, and we question the implementation of the Kuwaiti bilateral agreement signed last 2018 that was suppose to protect our workers in Kuwait,” Villanueva, chair of the Senate labor committee, said in a statement on Wednesday.

“We all thought that when the government entered into the bilateral labor agreement, our workers there would have better protection against all forms of abuse, effectively stopping the senseless deaths of our overseas Filipino workers at the hands of their employers,” he added.

The senator also called for justice into the death of the Filipino worker and urged authorities “to pursue all available legal means to ensure her family attains justice they rightly deserve.”

“It is already bad enough that she has to leave her family behind to work in a foreign land to give her loved ones a better opportunity,” he said.

Villanueva also called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to reach out to its counterparts in Kuwait to “see how justice may be achieved for our kababayan [fellow Filipino] and their bereaved family.”

“We hope that the labor department would continue to make representations with the Kuwaiti Ministry of Labor and work on a system to educate employers on the rights of their household service workers,” he added.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. already met with Kuwaiti Ambassador to Manila Musaed Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh to express the Philippine government’s “outrage” over the incident.

Both the Department of Foreign Affairs and the DOLE condemned the killing and said that the recent incident violated the spirit of the agreement the Philippines and Kuwait signed in 2018.

Expanded legal assistance fund 

The senator, likewise, pushed for a measure that seeks to further strengthen and expand the Legal Assistance Fund extended to migrant workers and Filipinos overseas.

“The death of our OFW in Kuwait highlights the need to pursue a key measure that will help our distressed compatriots abroad,” Villanueva said.

“The bill, which is on second reading, will strengthen the legal assistance provided for our kababayan abroad, and ensure that justice is pursued for our OFWs and overseas-based Filipinos,” he added.

Edited by JPV