Philippine Labor Minister, Sylvester Bello, has announced that he had received an official invitation to visit Kuwait on the second and third of February. The minister is expected to meet with his Kuwaiti counterpart and other ministers to discuss a resolution to the ban on deployment of Filipino household workers to Kuwait.
The Philippines instituted the ban on deployment following the brutal murder of Filipina household helper, Jeanelyn Villavende, by her Kuwaiti sponsor. During a Senate hearing last week in Manila, Minister Belo informed Philippine Senators that the public prosecutor in Kuwait had ordered the imprisonment of the Kuwaiti citizen and his wife, accused of the murder of Jeanelyn Villavende, for 21 days in the central prison, and referred them to the criminal court on charges of premeditated murder that amounts to the death penalty.
The labor minister told the Senate that he had set two conditions to lift the ban on sending Filipino workers to Kuwait, “the first is the administration of justice for Jeanelyn Villavende, and the second is that they agree to a standard contract of employment that includes certain provisions that the President Duterte wishes to include.”
Kuwait is opposed to any contract provisions that would allow citizens to be tried and sentenced in foreign courts, which could lead to Kuwaitis being arrested and imprisoned when they travel abroad.