Duterte bares inputs in OFW deal with Kuwait

By Arjay L. Balinbin

PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte on Wednesday announced a draft agreement with the government of Kuwait on the protection of Filipino workers in the Gulf state which includes mandatory provisions that he himself had proposed.

The formal signing of the agreement, according to Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, may take place in the first week of April.

“Honestly, I was late because we were working on the final draft that will be brought to Kuwait by Secretary Bello, and I added some requirements. For example, I demanded that it will be a contract of government-to-government and that there will be some mandatory provisions like they should be allowed to sleep at least seven hours a day,” Mr. Duterte said of the agreement, on the occasion of Wednesday’s graduation ceremonies at the Philippine National Police Academy in Silang, Cavite.

He added: “[Also,] that they will be fed nutritious food. And that I will not — we will not allow leftovers to be eaten by our countrymen. Then there will be no confiscation of passports by the employers.”

Mr. Duterte said he also included in the agreement a provision that Filipino workers “be allowed [to go on] holidays and everything.”

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said in a statement that a formal dialogue was held on March 16 “between a top level delegation of Kuwaiti officials and their Philippine counterparts on the provisions of the proposed agreement which will govern the deployment, employment and treatment of Filipino workers while staying in Kuwait.”

“Among the major provisions of the agreement include the prohibition of the surrender of Filipino passport(s) to Kuwaiti employers, the binding effect of the Philippine-crafted employment contract, the guaranteed payment of (a) minimum monthly net pay of $400 paid through the bank, and non-confiscation of mobile phones and other communication (devices),” the Labor department said.

According to Mr. Bello, “there was an impasse on two critical concerns as the talks were about to conclude. But we saw a breakthrough in early evening, and the Kuwaiti panel finally gave in at the last minute.”

“Talks were a success,” Mr. Bello said. However, “(the) formal signing (of the agreement) would not automatically result (in) the lifting of the government deployment ban,” he added.

DoLE said Kuwaiti officials, including Ambassador Ganhim Saqer Ali Shaheen Al Ganhim, arrived in the Philippines on March 15, “to negotiate the terms of the agreement weeks after the government decided on a total ban on deployment of workers to the Arab state on the issue of rampant abuses and the death of Joana Demafelis who was found stuck in a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait City in early February.”

Also on Wednesday, the President warned that the ban on the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait “will not be lifted” if his “conditions are not met.”