Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva has filed a resolution urging the executive department to ratify the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 190 on the elimination of violence and harassment in the workplace. According to the Philippine News Agency, Villanueva said filing Senate Resolution No 4566 will ensure the protection of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Villanueva said the Philippines’ ratification of the ILO Convention will provide the “impetus” to reflect on the principles of the labor standards and could provide the country the option to elevate the killings of OFWs to the ILO Supervisory Bodies. He was quoted saying that the brutal killing of Jullebee Ranara happened even amid an existing Memorandum of Understanding between the Philippines and Kuwait on the kafala system, which lays down the obligations in the treatment and protection of foreign workers.
According to latest data, there were 24,549 OFW welfare cases in Kuwait as of 2022, among these cases, 8,755 involved contract violation, 823 are physical maltreatment cases, 99 are sexual abuse cases and 26 are rape cases. The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) data showed a significant increase in welfare cases from 2016 which was at 6,536.