PH ambassador to Kuwait summoned over alleged rescue of distressed OFWs

FILE: Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa (Photo by Joyce Rocamora/PNA)

Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa was summoned by Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to hand him two diplomatic protest notes, following a viral video allegedly showing embassy officials rescuing distressed Filipino household service workers from Kuwaiti homes.

Kuwait News Agency, a state-run media outlet, reported that a spokesperson from the ministry said the noted were “related to recent remarks by several Filipino officials which amounted to serious offences against the State of Kuwait and led to the actions of some embassy employees in violation of the diplomatic norms governing relations between the two countries as per the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”

The official also expressed “regret over such practices which could harm the friendship between the two countries.”

Villa, on the other hand, said that the Philippine Embassy will submit its official reply to the protest notes to make some clarifications on the said video.

“I would like to acknowledge the support and cooperation of the government of the State of Kuwait in addressing our government’s concerns on the situation of our domestic workers. We thank the Kuwaiti government for the extension of the amnesty program for undocumented foreign nationals including Filipinos. As a result, we were able to bring home and reunite around 5,000 of our workers in the Philippines,” Villa was quoted as saying in an ABS-CBN report.

Some Arabic newspapers quoted Villa as saying that the embassy does not need Kuwait’s aid in extending assistance to overseas Filipino workers (OWFs), but the envoy denied making the statement.

“I would like to underscore that all our efforts to assist our nationals here in Kuwait would not be possible without the support of the Kuwaiti government. I would like to assure that all actions taken by the embassy are all intended to support our collective efforts to find solutions to the problems we have encountered concerning our workers,” Villa stressed.

He added that the embassy always works together with the Ministry of Interior when responding to requests for assistance by Filipino nationals.

“This is standard procedure and we will continue to do so. All the efforts undertaken in the past weeks in response to request for assistance by our nationals are undertaken to ensure that we resolve outstanding issues before the signing of the labor agreement and the visit of President Duterte,” he said.

On Saturday, the Philippine government repatriated at least 100 undocumented OFWs from Kuwait under the amnesty program the Kuwaiti government granted.

A total of 4,494 Filipino workers were already brought back to the Philippines through the Assistance to Nationals Fund (ATN) of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Meanwhile, the 200 Filipino workers who have been awaiting rescue has been reduced to 132, according to the DFA figures.