The Philippine government is maintaining its position that it will not be apologizing to the Kuwaiti government over its efforts to help distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle Eastern country.
“What the Kuwaitis are insisting on are a few things. One, a formal admission that we violated their sovereignty, laws, Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
De Vega added that Kuwait also wants Manila to apologize and commits that these acts will not be repeated.
“They would like us to apologize and to promise that such violations will not be repeated. They want us to promise to hold our officials at the embassy for those violations,” the DFA official added.
“The Philippine government’s position, Pres. Marcos’ position is that we cannot apologize for protecting our workers. We cannot hold our own people accountable for doing their job which is to protect our overseas nationals,” he said.
The DFA said another round of talks will not be feasible in June but the DFA is looking at the possibility of conducting talks in July.
De Vega said that while the Philippines and Kuwait are both standing their ground on the bilateral labor issue, it’s also important for both parties to find a middle ground.
Last week, the Kuwait Interior Ministry said that the Philippines violated the 2018 bilateral labor agreement.
Among the violations of the Philippines include housing workers in shelters, searching for runaways without involving state institutions, communicating with Kuwaiti citizens without permission from authorities and pressuring Kuwaiti employers to add clauses to employment contracts.
