DAVAO CITY — The Philippine government is set to issue an order implementing partial deployment ban of Overseas Filipino Workers to Kuwait.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the ban to Kuwait is being discussed after the killing of overseas Filipina worker (OFW) Jeanelyn Villavende.
Reports revealed Villavende requested her agency to take her out of her employer a month before she was killed.
The report added that Villavende was beaten to death in December 2019. She was already dead when she was brought to the hospital, where nurses on call reported she was “black and blue.’
In a press statement on Thursday, Bello stressed that the local placement agency that sent Villavende to the Gulf estate faces possible cancellation of its license for its failure to act on her request for repatriation months prior to her death in the hands of her Kuwaiti employer.
Bello said the partial ban was recommended by Labor Attache Nasser Mustafa and subject to the approval of the governing board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). Bello is chair of the POEA board.
The proposed ban will cover new domestic helpers, but not those who are already employed and will return to the Middle Eastern country as domestic helpers.
First time skilled workers are also not covered by the deployment ban.
“I may issue the memorandum on the partial deployment ban tomorrow. Once issued, it will be effective immediately,” Bello said.
The family of Villavende has already conveyed to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) that they want justice for Villavende’s death.
Secretary Teodoro Locsin of the Department of Foreign Affairs has asked the Kuwait government to give justice to Villavende’s death.
While labor groups call on President Rodrigo Duterte to review the 2018 agreement between the Philippines and Kuwait which highlights the protection of OFW in the Middle East countries.
