The government has called on Kuwait to fully implement the labor protection agreement or else the deployment ban on overseas Filipino workers will stay, Malacañang said yesterday.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo admitted that the 2018 Philippine-Kuwait memorandum of agreement on the protection of Filipino workers has not been fully implemented by the Gulf state.
“Until such time the terms of the MoA are incorporated in each labor contract between the employer and the employees, the ban remains. Kasi hindi pa nasusunod yun. That’s what Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III told me,” he said.
“’Yan ang kondisyon. Kag hindi ninyo ginawa ninyo ang pinag-usapan natin, tuloy-tuloy ang ban namin. That’s the condition. If you don’t keep the end of the bargain, the ban will stay,” he said.
Asked if it will be an indefinite ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait, Panelo said: “Yes.”
He explained that the government was not seeking any amendment to the Philippines-Kuwait labor protection pact but its full implementation. “Hindi lang strict. We are asking them to implement it otherwise the ban remains,” he added.
OFWs will no longer be deployed to Kuwait after the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration board approved a total deployment ban. The decision was reached due to Kuwait’s alleged lapses in handling the case of OFW Jeanelyn Villavende who was killed last month by her employers. (Genalyn Kabiling)
