PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday uncharacteristically refrained from commenting on the diplomatic row between the Philippines and Kuwait to avoid further strains in relations.
“I’m not going to talk about it because so much is at stake,” Duterte said in a mix of English and Filipino during the Labor Day ceremonies in Cebu City.
Upon returning from Singapore Sunday, Duterte had said the deployment ban on Filipino workers to Kuwait would become permanent after the Gulf state expelled Ambassador Renato Villa over videos that the Department of Foreign Affairs posted on the Internet showing Philippine Embassy staff rescuing distressed Filipino workers there.
In Cebu, Duterte said he wants those who wish to return to the Philippines from Kuwait to be able to do so.
“We will mobilize continuously until everyone who wants to be out of there would be able to come home,” he said.
The government, he added, will push for better protection for Filipino workers overseas, especially among domestics in the Middle East.
He said he was firm on the deployment ban, but said he would keep the door open to a compromise because so much is at stake.
There are more than 250,000 Filipino workers in Kuwait, at least 60 percent were employed as domestic helpers, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.
Duterte said he would not utter a word against Kuwait which could trigger a backlash.
Earlier, he said the Philippines would no longer pursue an agreement with the Kuwaiti government to provide better protection to Filipino workers in the Gulf state. But his remarks Tuesday indicated that this was not the case.
“There are on going talks between the Philippines and Kuwait. I will not not talk anymore [as this] may affect our interests,” he said to the thousands of job applicants and local officials gathered inside the IEC Pavilion in Cebu City.
“I will no longer pick up a fight. I will go for the soft landing. I won’t talk because so much is at stake,” he said.
But the President said that Filipino workers in Kuwait who are willing to leave that country can do so and vowed to shoulder their air fare back home.
He also said worker debts to their employers and agencies would be paid.
The Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday welcomed Kuwait’s willingness to work with Manila to iron out their diplomatic row.
On Sunday, Kuwait Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah conveyed Kuwait’s readiness to work with the Philippines to address the concerns of Filipino workers in the Gulf state.
Citing the “historic friendship” between the two states after Manila sent Kuwait assistance during the Gulf war, Al-Jarallah believed both will be able to mend strained ties.
“This gesture on the part of Kuwait, a country with which we have a shared history and strong people-to-people ties, will allow us to move forward and hurdle the challenges we face,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said in a statement.
“We acknowledge with heartfelt thanks the assurances of Kuwait to work with us in protecting the rights and promoting the welfare of Filipinos working there,” he added.
Senator Richard Gordon also welcomed the gesture from Kuwait.
The DFA, however, has yet to give an update on their appeal for the release of the four drivers who were arrested and the status of the three diplomats who also face arrest if they step out of the embassy.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque confirmed that Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, along with some Cabinet members will head to Kuwait on May 7 to meet with counterparts.
High-ranking officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, meanwhile, said Cayetano must be held accountable for the violation of Kuwait’s sovereignty and for causing a row with the distribution of videos showing the rescue operations.
“This is one case where whether one is aware of the act or not, he is still accountable,” one source said.
“It is a sensitive, high-profile issue. He should be monitoring it directly,” the source added.
A labor official agreed that Cayetano is responsible for the “undue publicity.”
“Yes, he should be accountable. For command responsibility by allowing undue publicity about the rescue,” the official added.
Another Foreign Affairs insider also said Cayetano was the one who selected the Rapid Response Team composed of some diplomats, his “minions,” and some blogger-propagandists or spin doctors.
“He selected the top minion for that office who put together the RRT. Considering rank, his office should be dealing with the irascible spin doctors,” the insider added.
A former diplomat said it is up to President Duterte to decide whether or not Cayetano should be held responsible for the reckless uploading of videos over social media.
When DFA spokesman Elmer Cato released the two videos to the media, a blogger who was formerly appointed by Cayetano, RJ Nieto, reposted the rescue videos on his Facebook page.
There were also videos of Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson in Kuwait interviewing OUMWA executive director Raul Dado, telling the public that the RRT was about to rescue a Filipino.
Another video also showed that she was inside a car and telling her viewers that they were on the way to rescue Filipinos.
The videos, which angered the Kuwait government, showed a woman running from a home and jumping into a waiting vehicle while another depicts a person sprinting from what looks like a construction site and then speeding off in a black sport utility vehicle.
Kuwait had branded the rescues a violation of its sovereignty, adding fuel to a simmering diplomatic row between the two nations sparked by the murder of a Filipino maid.
The controversial rescue video resulted in Kuwait’s decision to recall its envoy in Manila; expel Philippine Ambassador Renato Villa and order the arrest or three diplomats involved in the rescues.
Cayetano, during a press conference in Singapore, admitted that the video added fire to the issue, but did not express any regret that the video was released to the media and social media bloggers.
He claimed that Duterte encouraged the DFA to use social media to expose cases of abuse against Filipino workers.
“Immediately when I found out about the video, I told them can you review the policies, take out everything, why is it there? But how come I’m not being harsh in punishing people right away? Remember how many times… (has) the President said, ‘let’s be aggressive, if there are cases of abuse, use the social media,” Cayetano told reporters in Singapore on Thursday.
In a press conference in Cebu, Cayetano slammed people who criticized the DFA rescue mission.
But a political analyst and professor Richard Heydarian slammed Cayetano’s comment stressing that the issue here is not the rescue itself, but the release of the rescue videos on social media.
“We shouldn’t apologize to anyone for taking care of our own citizens, even if in defiance of international law, when host nations fail to live up to their side of the bargain – namely, upholding the basic human rights of guest workers per bilateral and international agreements,” he said.
He said 120 Filipino workers died or were killed in the country last year due to violence and inhumane working conditions.
“The Kuwaiti government has been a huge source of disappointment year after year,” he said.
Heydarian noted that the unfolding diplomatic crisis in Kuwait was not caused by the rescue operations but the result of “irresponsible, amateurish, self-aggrandizing action of publicity-hungry few.”
Heydarian said that Kuwait would not have responded this way if not for the “videos shared by super-trolls on Facebook.”
“Let’s not kid ourselves, Kuwaitis don’t watch mainstream Filipino media, but they surely use social media outlets avidly. So stop blaming the mainstream media, it’s so lame! Where is the accountability? Where is the government of the best and brightest? Where is the sense of honor? Where is the ‘real change?” he said. With Macon Ramos-Araneta, PNA