(Eagle News)–President Rodrigo Duterte supports a total deployment ban on Overseas Filipino Workers to Kuwait.
This is according to Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, who issued a statement after the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency formally approved the ban recommended by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III over the death of OFW Jeanelyn Villavende.
A National Bureau of Investigation autopsy of her remains showed she had been sexually abused.
Panelo reiterated the ban would remain until the memorandum of agreement between the two countries that was signed in 2018 is “fully implemented and the terms contained therein are incorporated in every labor contract” of OFWs.
He was referring to the pact that prompted the Philippines to lift the total ban on the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait imposed following the death of OFW Joanna Demafelis.
Demafelis’ body had been found in a freezer.
Among the terms of the pact included a ban on the employer’s confiscation of the OFW’s passport and a mandatory day-off for the worker.
