The Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced an earlier statement issued by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. that called for “blood for blood” in exchange for the brutal murder of overseas Filipino worker Jeanalyn Villavende.
In a Twitter message, the country’s chief diplomat wrote: “I renounce and reject any offer of blood money for her [Villavende] torture/murder. I want two lives for the life they took.”
In response to Locsin’s tweet, an official source at the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quoted to have said: “The remark contained an unacceptable transgression against jurisdictions of Kuwaiti security and judicial authorities. It runs counter to the simplest rules of international relations.”
The DFA chief vowed to fire anyone from his department that is involved in any effort to persuade the family to accept blood money in exchange for the freedom of the detained Kuwait employers.
In yesterday’s (January 28) Senate labor committee hearing, DFA Undersecretary Sarah Arriola said that a more recent draft Special Power of Attorney has been transmitted to the labor department for review prior to submitting this to the victim’s family for his signature. The more recent and official DFA draft no longer mentions anything about authorizing the Kuwait lawyer who will represent the Villavende family in court to discuss any offer of blood money.
The Villavende family has publicly rejected any financial transaction that would lead to the eventual freedom of their daughter’s murderers. Any government official or employee that even attempts to discuss this without the full knowledge and authorization of the family is committing an act of personal and national betrayal.
In Muslim countries, there is the private aspect to a serious crime like murder, and a public aspect that involves the Court sentence to be handed down by the judge. If the family agrees to accept money from the accused and executes a letter of forgiveness, the alleged murderers can regain their freedom after serving the Court sentence. In short, the acceptance of blood money would exempt convicted murderers from the death penalty. This is what the private aspect of such crime is all about.
How much did Jeanalyn suffer? The senators present during the labor committee hearing had to request the NBI representative who handled the autopsy to stop enumerating his findings. The narrative was just too painful to listen to.
“Buto’t balat,” was the description given. Jeanalyn’s stepmother failed to identify the body until she saw a familiar mole on the victim’s knee. The OFW that came home in a wooden box last December was just a bloody, skinny shadow of the young lady that boarded the plane for Kuwait in July. A few days before the New Year, she was dead, with too many wounds and scars to count.
Sen. Joel Villanueva asked the NBI, “What physical strength was needed to inflict those wounds? Can it be done by just one person?” The resource person said that “one, two, or three persons” could have committed the crime. He also said that based on old scars, the abuse could have started in October. In reply to Sen. Bong Go’s query, OWWA Administrator Hans Cacdac said that the Kuwaiti employers have three sons. The male employer worked for the Ministry of Interior as a policeman.
The owner of the recruitment agency that deployed Villavende said that the OFW’s family only reported a delay in monthly salary, and had not mentioned any request for assistance due to physical abuse. Administrator Cacdac offered a logical explanation for this. “On October 27, during her phone conversation with the family, Jeanalyn said that her lady employer was seated beside her.” This meant that the worker could not speak freely.
Deprived of freedom and stripped of life and dignity, Jeanalyn was already dying by the fourth or fifth month of her employment in Kuwait. The agency owner claimed that the secretary of his foreign partner in Kuwait was able to see Jeanalyn on December 10. The agency secretary reported that she was okay. But why did the agency owner rely solely on the word of a secretary employed by his counterpart agency? Had he immediately notified our labor attaché in Kuwait about the concerns raised by the victim’s family, the latter could have asked the employers to physically present Jeanalyn before him. He had that kind of authority. Unfortunately, that option was not even considered. Instead, the agency owner chose to believe the secretary of his Kuwaiti partner.
Several recruitment agency owners deploying domestic workers consider foreign employers and foreign recruitment agencies as clients; they think of OFW applicants as people in need of help. This is wrong. The OFW is the chief clientele because without her, the agency will not be in business.
And this is why Locsin’s tweet may be worthy of Kuwait’s condemnation, but never that of ours. He reminds everyone that Jeanalyn was a person imbued with human rights.
Through a single tweet, he planted the Philippine flag on the heroic grave of Jeanalyn Villavende. “Blood for blood. Two lives for one.” Because, damn it, we are not your slaves.
****
Susan V. Ople heads the Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, a nonprofit organization that deals with labor and migration issues. She also represents the OFW sector in the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking.