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DU30 can learn a lot from the Kuwait fiasco
islander:
DU30 can learn a lot from the Kuwait fiasco
BY FRANCISCO TATAD
MAY 2, 2018
I HOPE and firmly believe the Philippine diplomatic crisis with the State of Kuwait could be solved very soon, and that our Filipino domestic workers in that country and their dependents at home would be spared so much unnecessary anxiety and pain. The solution to the crisis need not be hard to find, and many are eager to see both governments work together and raise Philippine-Kuwaiti relations to a new level. But we cannot fudge the facts.
The Philippines committed an unfortunate breach when on April 7, it undertook “rapid rescue missions” of allegedly distressed Filipino domestic workers in Kuwaiti private homes, without the participation or consent of the appropriate Kuwaiti authorities. Seven teams were said to have participated.
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islander:
This violated Kuwait’s sovereignty and the norms prescribed by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The government complicated its error when on April 19, 2018 Acting DFA Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy Elmer Cato reportedly posted videos of the unauthorized rescue activities on Facebook, as though they were genuine diplomatic achievements.
What they could have done
Assuming there were complaints of employers’ abuses against our Filipino domestic workers, the Philippine embassy in Kuwait could have forwarded these complaints to the appropriate Kuwaiti authorities, and asked them to act. Should they fail to act, then the government would have found sufficient reason to raise the matter to the highest level. But under no circumstance did the Philippine government have the authority or power to extricate allegedly distressed Filipino domestic workers on its own. We are not even a middling military, economic or political power.
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islander:
According to Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, 68 OFWs had been “rescued” through this operation, while some 132 more were still awaiting the “rescuers.” Meanwhile, the videos had gone viral, and from April 19 to April 23, they were reportedly viewed at least 400,000 times. These were genuinely applauded by some; one highly supportive columnist said it was that kind of action, whose time had come.
But a justly offended host government reacted by expelling Philippine Ambassador Renato Villa as persona non grata, ordering the arrest of DFA-Office of Migrant Workers Affairs (OMWA) Executive Director Raul Dado and two other foreign affairs officers involved in the operation, and jailing four drivers without any diplomatic status.
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islander:
Cayetano apologized, but –
This happened after Cayetano had apologized, in President Rodrigo Duterte’s presence, to Kuwaiti Ambassador Musaed Saleh Althwaikh during a well-publicized meeting in Davao. The ambassador was himself recalled to Kuwait after his Davao meeting and Villa’s expulsion. What does this mean? This means the Kuwait foreign ministry decided not to accept Cayetano’s apology and instead play hardball.
DU30 must have been the first person to appreciate Kuwait’s strong reaction because of his own experience. He himself had threatened and continues to threaten foreigners who “interfere in his country’s domestic affairs” by talking about his extrajudicial drug killings. How then could Kuwait allow Philippine rescue teams to extract allegedly distressed Filipino domestics from Kuwaiti private homes without any adverse reaction from the government?
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islander:
Who ordered the rescue?
But did DU30 order the unlawful operation? If not DU30 himself, who did?
Although this was primarily a labor issue, it appears Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd was the last person to know about the rescue operations. Did the orders come directly from Cayetano, or did they come from DFA Undersecretary for OMWA Sarah Lou Arriola, a non-career official who may or may not have heard at all of the Vienna Convention?
The fiasco has understandably triggered a lot of blame-passing among DU30’s own people. Yesterday, one morning broadsheet reported that Cayetano and Bello had a shouting match in DU30’s presence, before the President left for the last Asean summit in Singapore. The report did not say who outshouted whom, but the entire government is obviously hurting badly from this incident.
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