President Rodrigo Duterte has invited Saudi Arabia’s royals to visit the country as the two nations marked the 50th year of their diplomatic relations.
The President’s invitation to King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was relayed by Presidential Assistant on Foreign Affairs Robert Borje during a courtesy call on Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud in Riyadh on Monday.
President Duterte last met the king and the crown prince during his state visit to Saudi Arabia in April 2017.
During their meeting, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines reaffirmed their shared commitment to intensify cooperation.
Borje, who also serves as chief of presidential protocol and Duterte’s special envoy to Saudi Arabia, conveyed the government’s gratitude to oil-rich kingdom for ensuring the welfare of Filipinos working there.
Saudi Arabia is currently the largest employer of migrant Filipino workers and has the largest Filipino population in the Middle East. Filipinos make up the fourth-largest group of foreigners in Saudi Arabia and are the second-largest source of remittances to the Philippines.
The government has sought the assistance of the Saudi Social Welfare Agency in the repatriation of nearly 200 distressed Filipino workers there.
Prince Faisal said he will try to accelerate the process for Saudi-born Filipino minors awaiting repatriation to the Philippines.
The prince also expressed the kingdom’s willingness to contribute to the development of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, as Borje invited them to invest in infrastructure programs in the region.
Prince Faisal assured the Philippine official that Saudi Arabia will contribute to BARMM’s development, a press release from the Palace said.
The kingdom played a key role in Mindanao peace initiatives in the past.
Borje is on an assistance-to-nationals mission in the Middle East and North Africa to assess the Filipinos’ condition.
The Department of Justice on Wednesday said the Philippines is finalizing three treaties with Saudi Arabia that would pave the way for the repatriation of imprisoned overseas Filipino workers to serve their sentences in the Philippines.
Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said they met Dec. 9 to 11 with the delegation from Saudi Arabia and concluded three treaties”• the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Agreement, the Extradition Treaty, and the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty on criminal matters between the Philippines and the KSA.
The Justice official cited the need to negotiate these treaties because 91 Filipinos are currently detained in Saudi Arabia and 1,002 Filiopino workers are being investigated for various crimes.
“We saw the number of individuals detained and we made it a priority,” Perete said.
Out of the 91 detained Filipinos, one of them is serving an 11-20 years term; six of them are serving five-10 years imprisonment; and 84 of them are serving less than five years imprisonment.
Perete said since the two countries have both approved the revisions and concluded the terms in the three treaties, both parties would submit the draft to their respective principals for signing by their secretaries or ministers of justice or heads-of-state, possibly by early next year.
“If the TSPA is approved by the principals… and eventually signed, this would allow the prisoners to be repatriated back in the Philippines to serve their sentence in the Philippines instead in the kingdom,” the DOJ official said.