TUCP calls for convening of PH-Kuwait panel over OFW’s death

TUCP president and party-list Rep. Raymond Mendoza said this is to prevent a possible whitewash of the investigation on the death of Filipina domestic helper Jeanelyn Villavende as the spouse of the suspect is an employee at the Kuwaiti Department of the Interior. (File photo: TUCP Party-List/Facebook)

MANILA — Labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) on Friday urged the government to immediately convene the joint monitoring committee contained in the May 2018 pact between the Philippines and Kuwait.

TUCP president and party-list Rep. Raymond Mendoza said this is to prevent a possible whitewash of the investigation on the death of Filipina domestic helper Jeanelyn Villavende as the spouse of the suspect is an employee at the Kuwaiti Department of the Interior.

“The Philippine government must seriously invoke the joint monitoring committee comprised of representatives from the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs consular office and the Department of Labor and Employment’s labor attache and the representatives from Kuwait government to convene immediately and take cognizance of the case and protect the facts and instances surrounding Villavende’s death from being whitewashed,” he said in a statement.

“The monitoring committee must be convened immediately because the spouse of the suspect is an employee at the Kuwait Interior Department and we fear that it might influence the government authorities investigating the incident and alter the facts and (pieces of evidence) of the case around Villavende’s death,” he added.

Mendoza, chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Overseas Foreign Workers, said his committee will conduct a legislative inquiry into the death of the OFW in Kuwait.

“The investigation will help us know what happened, how it happened, and what can we do concretely to prevent these deaths from happening. This incident will also help us in our efforts to craft the bill creating the Department of Filipino Overseas and Foreign Employment (DFOFE) fully responsive to its mandate as caretaker of OFWs,” he added.

The House of Representatives has finished the bill, which is waiting for the Senate-House Bicameral Conference Committee meeting scheduled on the first week of February 2020.

Meanwhile, labor group Federation of Free Workers (FFW) on Friday expressed support on the plan of the government to impose a partial ban on the deployment of household service workers (HSWs) to Kuwait.

“Such action is timely, called for and within the police power of the state,” lawyer Sonny Matula, FFW president, said in a statement.

On Thursday, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello III announced that they are looking to impose the partial ban on newly hired HSWs to the host country.

The recommendation for the partial ban of OFWs was due to the death of Villavende who was reportedly physically abused by her employer.