SENATE President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto took up the cudgels for a former colleague, beleaguered Foreign Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano, amid a brewing controversy ensuing from a Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) team’s successful rescue of distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) detained in Kuwait.
“There is no basis to call for Secretary Cayetano’s resignation,” Recto said, adding, “It is wrong to call for his resignation. It undercuts our current posture of being more assertive in helping our OFWs,” he added.
In a news statement issued on Thursday, Recto wondered why Cayetano is being asked to resign. “His [Cayetano’s] men rescued two Filipinas in distress. He didn’t bomb a country, nor did he invade another,” Recto said, pointing out that “at a time when countries use might to enforce their will, the worst that the rescue inflicted was a pinprick on diplomatic niceties.”
While Recto acknowledged that it was “improper” to officially upload the video of the OFW rescue mission, he asserted “it is equally wrong to equate it as a major diplomatic faux pas” that would warrant Cayetano’s resignation.
The Senate leader notes that Cayetano, in pursuing the Philippines’s interests, has “mastered the art of stepping on toes—with the other person thinking that he is playing footsies.”
But, Recto added, there are times when Cayetano and his men have to “kick down some doors, especially if these block the path to freedom for our compatriots.”
Recto also clarified that the “aggressive defense of our abused countrymen is no vice; it is a virtue.”
“When thousands of our OFWs await repatriation, when thousands of them have sought sanctuaries from abuse, when almost 5,000 of them are behind bars or facing charges, some audacity in representing them is needed,” the Senate President Pro Tempore said, even as he acknowledged “there are times when diplomats pretend to be doormats, [and] there are times when they have to be matadors.”
Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa flew in from Kuwait to Manila on Wednesday night after being declared “persona non grata” by the host government.
Kuwait was apparently offended by a video that went viral on social media and released by Philippine government officials showing the rescue of distressed Filipina domestic helper.
Villa was welcomed at the premier airport by Cayetano before midnight after disembaking from a Philippine Airlines Flight PR 699 from Kuwait.
Villa said he has done “an appropriate action” to save the life of a Filipina domestic helper from the hands of her abusive employer.
The rescue for the distressed Filipina domestic helper, who was reportedly being abused and maltreated by her employer, was caught on video and went viral on Facebook last month.
The Kuwaiti government retaliated by declaring Villa persona non grata over what it called “inappropriate behavior” by the Philippine diplomatic staff who was shown in the video conducting a rescue of an overseas Filipino worker being abused by her employer.
Cayetano said that the rescue operations were appropriately coordinated with Kuwaiti authorities.
Cayetano later apologized to the Kuwaiti government, saying that the country’s actions were done “in the spirit of emergency to protect [a distressed] Filipina domestic helper.”
Villa said a group of Filipino workers saw him before he left as the one-week deadline set by Kuwait ended.
President Duterte has canceled the deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait following the murder of a Filipina domestic helper, whose body was found inside the freezer of her employer.
The Syrian couple have been arrested and sentenced to death and have reportedly offered “blood money” for their release.
The family of the slain domestic helper, however, refused the offer, saying they wanted justice for their family member.
With Recto Mercene