EDITORIAL — Coming home in boxes instead of with them

After meeting with Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on the sidelines of the first Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Gulf Cooperation Council, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the ban on the deployment of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to Kuwait will end.

“At that very quick, very short meeting, we agreed to continue to discuss some of the obstacles in our relationship in terms of the bans that we had imposed for employment. And he was very, very effusive in saying that we should remove all of those and we should continue as we had done before, which is a very important development,” President Marcos was quoted as saying in a news report.

The Philippines decided to stop sending OFWs to Kuwait after the gruesome murder of Jullebee Ranara whose burned corpse was found in the desert last January after she had been killed by the son of her employer.

We suppose that lifting this ban is a good development in the long run; while we did agree with banning OFW deployment to Kuwait, we suggested that it shouldn’t be a blanket order covering all professions and occupations in that Gulf State, just those at risk of abuse from entitled employers.

With that said, Philippine authorities must make sure the necessary safeguards are in place to protect our workers and that employers of these OFWs must be compelled to adhere to them. And more importantly that those responsible will be held accountable for crimes against our OFWs.

Because until now it would seem some employers or even fellow workers of our OFWs place very little value on their lives.

Ranara wasn’t the only recent victim of violence against OFWs. In a previous editorial we mentioned Marjorette Garcia, an OFW allegedly stabbed dead by a jealous co-worker in Saudi Arabia, and Mary Grace Viray Santos, who was killed by the son of her employer in Amman, Jordan.

Unless and until we can make sure to protect our OFWs and bring those responsible to justice some of them will continue to come home in wooden boxes instead of bringing home balikbayan boxes.