(Eagle News) — Philippine ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa was expelled from the Middle Eastern country because the Philippine embassy did not respond to the Kuwaiti government’s request that the names of the Filipinos who had “committed the offense of smuggling Filipina workers in three months” be delivered, a report said.
The act of smuggling cited by the report published on KUNA was apparently made in reference to the Philippine embassy’s rescue of Overseas Filipino Workers from abusive employers there.
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration deputy administrator Arnel Ignacio said, however, that such an act was illegal in Kuwait if it was done without prior coordination with Kuwaiti authorities.
A Kuwaiti foreign ministry statement said, according to the KUNA report, that Villa was summoned twice over the dispatch of “reinforcements to the embassy in (the Middle Eastern country); comprised of seven teams affiliated with the foreign undersecretary for labor in immigration at pretext of rescuing female housemaids in Kuwait.”
KUNA said these acts were described by the Kuwaiti foreign ministry as constituting “explicit breach of international principles and covenants.”
The KUNA report said the Kuwaiti government also lodged complaints before Villa, “expressing the State of Kuwait extreme dismay and denunciation of such dangerous transgressions, coupled with an explicit request that the embassy deliver names of the Filipinos who had committed the offense of smuggling Filipina workers in three months.”
“However this duration has passed without any response from the embassy,” the Kuwaiti foreign ministry statement said in the KUNA report.
KUNA said that apart from asking Villa to leave within a week, the Kuwaiti government therefore recalled its representative in Manila “for consultation.”
The ministry affirmed “determination to move from this extraordinary situation toward wider horizons of solid and joint relations as part of the historic and deep-rooted ties between the two countries,” KUNA said.
According to the KUNA report, the Kuwaiti foreign ministry also emphasized the need to address the issue “with wisdom and prudence, without any negative and harmful media sensationalism for sake of attaining the common aspiration toward distinctive and sound bilateral relations between the two friendly counties.”
The expulsion of Villa and the recall of Kuwait’s envoy in Manila comes after a meeting between Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Kuwaiti ambassador to the Philippines Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh.
Cayetano said during the meeting, the Philippines gave the assurance it respected Kuwait, which in turn gave the assurance the OFWs in the Middle Eastern country were protected.