(Eagle News) — Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the President Rodrigo Duterte’s appeal for Filipino workers in Kuwait to come home is not compulsory, as he clarified that there was no permanent ban on the deployment of Filipino workers in Kuwait.
Roque made this clarification after the President announced on Sunday that the deployment ban to Kuwait will stay until a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the protection of Overseas Filipino Workers in Kuwait is signed.
“This is voluntary. He (Duterte) is not compelling anyone to come home. The context is, if Kuwait doesn’t want Filipinos there, they can come home and we’ll help them,” Roque said.
“Nothing is permanent. Until there is an MOU, there is no lifting of the deployment ban,” he added.
Overseas Filipino workers are facing a crisis following a tense diplomatic row over the rescue of distressed Filipinos in Kuwait.
President Duterte said he did not want Filipino workers to suffer and government would use all the resources it has to help them come back home, and to support them.
“The money is there. If it has not been remitted to the National Treasury, I can always use emergency fund. To me, it’s a calamity…
If my countrymen are suffering, I would use it. If you want, I would steal money from the central bank. But they (workers) have to come home,” the President said.