Kuwaiti gets death for murder of Pinay household worker

MANILA, Philippines — A criminal court in Kuwait on Wednesday meted one of its citizens the maximum penalty of death by hanging for the murder of Filipino household worker Jeanelyn Padernal Villavende.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the lawyer engaged by the Philippine embassy in Kuwait, Sheikha Fawziya Al Sabah, described the Court of First Instance decision as fair and in accordance with the law and Sharia.

The lawyer noted that the accused assaulted her Filipino employee for days and imprisoned her in a room until her death.

The court also sentenced the husband of the accused to four years of imprisonment for covering up and not reporting the crime.

“To my brother, the Kuwait Ambassador to the PH, I owe you a debt of blood gratitude. My thanks and that of my nation and people is eternal,” Locsin tweeted.

“And that is real diplomacy. Not of talk and wasteful travel expenses but of decision, decision, decision,” he said.

Villavende died on Dec. 28, 2019 due to “acute failure of heart and respiration as result by (sic) shock and multiple injuries in the vascular nervous system.”

The Philippine embassy in Kuwait welcomed the decision that found Villavende’s employers guilty of killing their house help.

“Ms. Villavende’s case against her abusive employers stood on solid ground – born out of the swift and transparent investigation made by Kuwait authorities, and the strong evidence presented before the court against her killers,” the embassy said in a statement.

Newly accredited Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Mohd. Noordin Pendosina Lomondot expressed his gratitude to lawyer Al Sabah for her handling of the Villavende murder case.

“May the court’s decision on the Villavende murder case serve as a reminder to everyone that no Filipino is a slave to anyone, anywhere and everywhere, and that justice will always come to the defense of the weak and oppressed,” the embassy added.