Kuwait outraged after Filipino ‘blood for blood’ demand
Philippine official demands “two lives” for murdered Filipina domestic worker
Cairo: Kuwait has denounced as a “rejected transgression” remarks by a senior Philippine officer who demanded “blood for blood” in the case of a Filipina recently killed in Kuwait, triggering tensions between the two countries.
Earlier this week, the Philippines’ Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Locsin Jr said he rejects any offer of blood money in the case of Jeanelyn Villavende who Manila has said was brutally killed in Kuwait.
“THERE WILL BE BLOOD @DFAPHL for Jeanelyn Villavende. I renounce & reject any offer of blood money for her torture/murder. I want two lives for the life they took,” Locsin said in his official Twitter account.
He added that a lawyer handling the case is not authorised to “suggest or accept blood money from her killers”.
“Kuwait expresses dismay and denunciation of this statement that includes a rejected transgression on the powers of the security and judicial authorities in the country,” an official source at the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry said, according to Al Rai newspaper.
The source added that the Philippine official’s remarks contradict the “simplest rules of international relations” and seek to influence ongoing investigations into the case.
Kuwait has arrested employers of Villavende after her suspicious death last month.
An official Philippine autopsy found that the house maid had been sexually abused before she was murdered.
In response, the Philippines imposed a ban on the deployment of newly hired workers to Kuwait.
In 2018, ties between Kuwait and the Philippines soured after the body of a Philippine housemaid was found inside her employers’ freezer. The row was shortly resolved after the two countries reached an agreement regulating employment of domestic workers.