Solons urge actions on deaths of OFWs in Kuwait, Singapore

By Jigger J. Jerusalem
Correspondent

CAGAYAN de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez has condemned the killing of a Filipino overseas worker (OFW) in Kuwait as his proposed legislation on the creation of a new department that will handle migrant employees is now being taken up at the Lower House.

In a statement last Friday, Rodriguez said the Department of Foreign Affairs should secure the best lawyers in Kuwait to prosecute the wife of Jeanelyn Villavende’s employer, who died last month.

Reports said Villavende had informed her recruitment agency she was being maltreated and was not given her exact salary by her Kuwaiti employer as early as September last year.

Rodriguez said the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) “should immediately stop the further deployment of our Pinay workers to Kuwait. A more comprehensive and protective agreement for our Filipinas in Kuwait should be demanded by our government.”

The lawmaker said he has filed House Bill 5832 or an Act creating the Department of Filipinos Overseas and Foreign Employment, defining its mandate, powers and function to have said proposed agency to immediately and fully protect and assist Filipino workers abroad.

He said HB 5832 has already been consolidated with other bills in Congress and “the consolidated bill under a Committee Report has already been debated in the plenary in the House.”

In a separate statement, Agusan del Norte 1st District Rep. Lawrence Fortun said negotiators from the DFA and Dole must demand blood money from the Villavende’s suspected killer, aside from the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrator.

“For the sensitive situation in Kuwait, applying the principle of reciprocity, our country should demand blood money from the Kuwaiti employer’s family aside from the expeditious prosecution and conviction of the killer,” Fortun said.

On the deaths of two OFWs in Singapore recently, Fortun said the Philippine Embassy must work with other institutions there to find “suitable safe spaces where thousands of Pinoys can spend their days off at no cost to the OFWs.”