Statement of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano Upon His Arrival in Kuwait

Secretary Cayetano in Kuwait. Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano arrived in Kuwait on Thursday and will be meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H.E. Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al Hamad Al Sabah on Friday to discuss the state of bilateral relations between the Philippines and Kuwait, in particular the proposed memorandum of understanding on the employment of household service workers. The Secretary was met at the airport by Kuwaiti Ambassador to Manila Musaed Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh and Philippine Consul General Noordin Lomondot. DFA Photo

KUWAIT 10 May 2018 — Allow me to thank the Government of the State of Kuwait for warmly welcoming me and my delegation upon my arrival in Kuwait.

I also would like to take this opportunity to express our deep appreciation to the Kuwaiti Government for working closely with us in the past three weeks to realize our shared desire of not only normalizing the relations between our two countries but also in ensuring the well-being of the more than 250,000 Filipinos working here.

I am particularly heartened by the positive gestures of the Kuwaiti Government, most especially in the past several days, that assured us of its firm commitment to help ensure the well-being of thousands of our kababayans who they have so generously been hosting in the past four decades.

This assurance from the Kuwaiti Government is one of the preconditions set by the President before we could consider signing the proposed “Agreement on the Employment of Domestic Workers between the Philippines and Kuwait.”

For the past three weeks, the Department of Foreign Affairs, through the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait, the Department of Labor and Employment through the Philippine Overseas Labor Office, and the Office of the President, through Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers Secretary Abdullah Mamao, have been quietly engaging our Kuwaiti counterparts to pursue the President’s directive for us to protect the rights and promote the welfare of our kababayans in Kuwait.

As a result of these efforts, Kuwait was convinced to agree to, among others, the repatriation not only of our kababayans in our shelters but also those who are still in households awaiting help; the activation of a 24/7 hotline that distressed Filipinos can call for assistance, and the creation of a special police unit that would assist the Embassy in responding to calls for assistance.

Kuwait also agreed to release the four Filipino drivers who were taken into custody for assisting the Embassy in responding to the requests for assistance from distraught kababayans. The release of the four drivers to the Embassy on Tuesday was confirmed by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III and Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque during their press conference on Wednesday.

We also have been working behind the scenes with our Kuwaiti counterparts to facilitate the immediate return to Manila of our three colleagues from the Department of Foreign Affairs. We are confident this will happen in a few days.

In a few hours, I will be meeting Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H.E. Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al Hamad Al Sabah. Both of us will sit down to assess how much we have accomplished so far and how much farther we are willing to go in our engagement.

It is our hope that the momentum created by the goodwill generated by our two sides during the past three weeks would lead to the signing today of the Memorandum of Agreement between our two countries.

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Special Envoy Mamao, Secretary Bello, Secretary Roque, Consul General Noordin Lomondot and many nameless others for their role in advancing one of our country’s core national interests—-assisting Filipinos in distress.

I also would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to our kababayans and members of the media back home for giving us the diplomatic space that allowed us to secure the guarantees that we wanted from our Kuwaiti counterparts.

I would also like to thank those who gave us the benefit of the doubt, those who kept their faith and trust in us knowing that in the end, we would be able to accomplish our mission to ensure the safety and well-being not only of Filipinos in Kuwait but also our kababayans in other parts of the world.

Maraming Salamat Po!