Duterte adds provisions on draft deal with Kuwait to protect OFWs

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday bared some of his demands to the Kuwaiti government in a bid to protect overseas Filipino workers and uphold their rights. 

 

The president himself wants domestic workers in Kuwait to get seven hours of sleep daily, enjoy holidays and be fed with nutritious food.

 

“We will not allow leftovers to be eaten by our countrymen,” Duterte said during the graduation exercises of the Philippine National Police Academy’s Maragtas Class of 2018. 

 

The chief executive also said that he would no longer allow the practice of Kuwaiti employers to confiscate the passports of OFWs upon arrival. 

 

“If at all, it will be surrendered there in the tables of arrivals of any country where the Filipinos are working,” Duterte said. 

 

These are some of the “mandatory requirements” that the president himself listed down in the draft agreement between the Philippines and Kuwait. 

 

This, he explained, is the reason why he was late for the PNPA graduation.

 

“I was late because we were working on the final draft that will be brought to Kuwait by Secretary [Silvestre] Bello and I added some requirements,” Duterte said. 

 

Duterte, moreover, stressed that OFWs must not be abused. 

 

“We are not slaves. Maybe our only fault would be in your country is because we are poor,” he said. 

 

Duterte, who enjoyed overwhelming support from OFWs in the 2016 elections, earlier banned the deployment of new migrant workers to the Gulf nation following the death of domestic helper Joanna Demafelis. Her body was discovered inside a freezer in her employer’s home in Kuwait. 

 

The government will not lift the deployment unless more pragmatic measures to protect OFWs are included in the bilateral labor agreement, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.