President Rodrigo Duterte said that he would “sell his soul to the devil” so that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who will return to the Philippines can live a comfortable life in the country.
Duterte said this during his speech last Tuesday wherein he also expressed his anger over the abuse that some OFWs suffered from in Kuwait, reported Inquirer.
“You come home and I will sell my soul to the devil to look for money so that you can come home and live comfortably here,” he said.
In his speech which lasted more than 30 minutes, Duterte also emphasized on the case of one of the OFWs who was scaled by her employer with a flat iron.
“That’s the usual case. They are raped, abused, used as animals. Hindi talaga makatao ‘yung plantsa.
“Kaya sabi ko, ‘What would be the sin of this Filipina?’ Sabi ko doon sa mga taga-Kuwait, and I’m repeating it, ‘What have we done to you to deserve this kind of treatment for my countrymen?’” he said.
On February 9, the president asked Filipinos in Kuwait to come home after the body of Joanna Demafelis, an OFW in Kuwait, was found inside a freezer of an apartment in the Gulf country.
Duterte first threatened to suspend the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait on January following the seven cases of death of OFWs in Kuwait.
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola said Monday that as many as 10,000 Filipinos are expected to apply for repatriation and avail an amnesty program arranged by the Philippine Embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Kuwait with the Kuwaiti government.
