Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 10) — President Duterte Rodrigo Duterte intends to bring home some overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East who have been granted clemency.
Duterte said during his pre-departure speech at the Davao City International Airport on Monday that some of the OFWs have been given the “clearance” to go back to the Philippines.
“I will fly them home. Pagdating ko dito dala ko na ‘yung iba [When I arrive, I will have some of them with me],” Duterte said. “Those who are given the permission of clemency to whatever it was may clearance na about 5,000 of them, we’ll start bringing them back.”
The President left for a State visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from April 10 to 12 where he will meet King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in Riyadh.
He will head to the Kingdom of Bahrain on April 12, then to the State of Qatar on April 14, before going back to the Philippines on April 16.
All three countries have death penalty laws.
“There is much at stake in the Philippines’ relations with the Middle East: It is the global center of traditional energy resources. It is a source of investments with potential [for] much growth. It is an expanding market for Philippine key political products and services. And, it is home to the largest group of Filipinos working overseas,” Duterte said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) noted there are 760,000 Filipinos in Saudi Arabia, 60,000 in Bahrain, and 250,000 in Qatar.
Saudi Arabia is the country’s 17th major trading partner, and the most preferred destination for OFWs in 2015.
OFWs have remitted at least P131 billion from Saudi Arabia in the last year.
But overseas workers experience humanitarian problems in the Middle Eastern country. In June 2016, the DFA sent a Rapid Response Team to Saudi Arabia to aid at least 11,000 OFWs who have not been paid their salaries on time.
According to Assistant Secretary Hjayceelyn Quintana of the Office of Middle East and African Affairs (OMEAA), there are 31 Filipinos facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia as of March 2017.
In December 29, 2015, 35-year old OFW Joselito Zapanta was executed in Saudi Arabia after he was convicted of murdering his Sudanese landlord in 2010. The Philippine government tried to raise P48 million in blood money, but fell P25 million short.
When asked if there could be a memorandum of agreement between the Middle East and the Philippines regarding human rights violations towards Filipino domestic workers, Duterte said that the results of their discussion could not be made public.
CNN Philippines’ researcher Ella Hermonio contributed to this report.
