PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. said on Saturday that the Philippines will now return to its normal state of relationship with the Kuwait government in terms of labor issues.
To recall, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) in February, halted the deployment of Filipino household workers to Kuwait after overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Jullebee Ranara was brutally murdered by the son of her Kuwaiti employers.
After a few months, Kuwait decided to suspend the issuance of entry and work visas for Filipinos.
In his arrival statement at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City earlier today, Marcos emphasized that the ban on the deployment of workers to Kuwait will end.
The statement was made following President Marcos Jr.’s meeting with Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations- Gulf Cooperation Council (ASEAN-GCC) Summit in Saudi Arabia.
PBBM shared that he and the Kuwaiti leader, both agreed to continue to discuss some of the obstacles the two countries have been facing in terms of the imposed employment bans.
“And he was very, very effusive in saying that we should remove all of those and we should continue as we had done before, which is a very important development because for a few months now, we have had to ban the deployment of Filipino workers in Kuwait. Now that will end, we will now return to the normal state of affairs with the Kuwaiti government,” according to President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
President Marcos did not specifically mention when the ban would be lifted.
But he said the Kuwaiti government has “moved very quickly” as they already started discussions on fixing the issues.
“And in fact, they have moved very quickly. They have already started discussions at the ministerial level, and at the ambassadorial level as well,” President Marcos added.
President Marcos described the conversation with Kuwaiti leader as a very quick and very short meeting.
Saudi gov’t ensures unpaid wages of more than 10K OFWS are being processed—PBBM
On the other hand, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia assured President Marcos Jr. to pay the unpaid wages of more than 10,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
The commitment was made during the sidelines of PBBM’s attendance at the ASEAN-GCC Summit in Riyadh.
The said OFWS lost their jobs after the companies they worked for declared bankruptcy in 2015 and 2016.
President Marcos said that the Saudi government is now processing the back wages of the affected OFWs.
The chief executive said that the list of claimants has been cleaned and is in order.
However, President Marcos emphasized that no other details can be disclosed about the settlement issues.
But according to President Marcos, “in concept” and “in principle”, Saudi will continue paying the insurance claims of those working in businesses that went bankrupt when they closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The president cannot only say when because it also depends on the internal process of Saudi Arabia.
It can be recalled that in the bilateral meeting in conjunction with the APEC Summit in Bangkok, Thailand last year, the Crown Prince promised President Marcos, Jr. about 2 billion riyals for OFWs who were affected when their construction firms went bankrupt.
