Bishop nixes ban on OFW deployment to Kuwait

Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga. (Analyn Perucho/CBCPNews)

MANILA, Jan. 29, 2017— The Labor department should reconsider its plan to ban the deployment of Filipino domestic helpers to Kuwait due to reports of abuses by employers, a Catholic bishop said.

Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga said the government should instead make good on its promise to provide alternative or permanent jobs to all Filipinos so that they will not be forced to work abroad.

“Temporarily banning works in Kuwait is not the answer, it will just create difficulties to our people,” said Santos, who chairs the CBCP’s Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.

The bishop also called on the government to make sure the needs of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are given proper attention.

“We have to accompany and always assist our OFWs there, be always available to them and attend to their needs-legal, economic and spiritual,” he added.

He also said that the Church’s migrants ministry is also doing its best to help the OFWs.

“In Kuwait we have three Catholic Churches: Holy Family, St. Theresa and Our Lady of Arabia,” Santos said.

Last Wednesday, Filipina domestic helper Jakatia Pawa was executed for the murder of her employer’s daughter in 2007.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said they are exerting all efforts to save another OFW death convict Elpidio Lano who was found guilty by a Kuwaiti court of killing Filipino Nilo Macaranas in 2014. (CBCPNews)