Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star)
- May 3, 2018 - 1:00am
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/05/03/1811709/kuwait-cuts-power-water-philippine-envoys-home
MANILA, Philippines — Kuwait has cut
off water and electricity at the official residence of Philippine Ambassador
Renato Villa after he was expelled and declared persona non grata for allowing
the rescue of distressed Filipino workers in the Gulf state, sources said
yesterday.
Villa, asked by Kuwait last week to
leave in seven days, was scheduled to arrive in Manila last night. He was ex-
pected to be met at the airport by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter
Cayetano and the two would face the media.
“After the expulsion, they cut off
his water and electricity,” a source told The STAR.
Utilities in Kuwait are run by the
Ministry of Electricity and Water Supply.
“The ambassador was staying at the
embassy. It was no longer safe for him to stay at his residence after he was
declared persona non grata,” another source said.
Kuwait also issued warrants of
arrest and a travel ban against DFA Office of Migrant Workers Affairs (OMWA)
executive director Raul Dado, who was pinpointed by the four Filipino drivers
as the one who supervised the seven teams from the embassy and the DFA that
carried out the rescue missions.
Arrest warrants were also issued
against two other diplomatic personnel, Francis Baquiran and Omar Hassan, as
they were also identified by the drivers they hired.
“They can stay at the embassy but
Kuwaitis could turn off water and electricity to force them to surrender,” a
source said.
Sources said the three sneaked into
the embassy instead of going back to their hotel when Dado was told that
embassy staff saw his photos all over immigration counters at the airport.
The drivers, who were hired to bring
the distressed Filipino workers to the airport, were arrested and believed to
have been forced to give details on the rescue operations.
Career diplomats at the DFA have
called for the resignation of Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and his appointees
to different positions in the department for gross incompetence and blunder
that resulted in the expulsion of Villa and strained relations with Kuwait.
The career officers did not refer to
the Union of Foreign Service Officers (UNIFORS) as the organization of career
diplomats behind the letter but DFA officials, who asked not to be named,
confirmed the authenticity of the letter that circulated to Philippine
diplomatic missions abroad and was sent to President Détente.
In the letter, the DFA career
officers said “the diplomatic row between the Philippines and Kuwait has
unmasked the gross incompetence of DFA Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and his
top aides who are now a liability to the Duterte administration.”
The officers also pointed to DFA
Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs, lawyer Sarah Lou Arriola, a
non-career official, as the one behind the rescue missions.
They said Arriola was apparently
ignorant of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic and Consular Relations
that she even went to Kuwait twice to personally instruct the rapid response
teams (RRT) to intensify rescue operations.
The Philippines apologized to Kuwait
last week for the rescue operation after the Gulf state protested the mission,
which it viewed as violation of diplomatic norms and infringement on Kuwait’s
sovereignty.
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