by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Manila : The Philippines House of Representatives on Wednesday approved the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), which would provide increased autonomy to Mindanao, the Muslim-majority southern region of the country.
The Lower House introduced a number of amendments before approving the bill that would allow the establishment of a self-administered territory in an area sometimes referred to as Bangsamoro (nation of Moros), encompassing mountains, islands and jungles that is home to at least 4 million people, mostly Muslim, official news website PNA reported.
One of the amendments sought to keep security forces under the central government while another mandated that the law should be ratified with a single plebiscite, to be held within 90-120 days after the law is approved, instead of a referendum every 25 years as proposed earlier, Efe news reported.
The House passed the law a day after President Rodrigo Duterte certified the bill as “urgent”.
He had repeatedly urged a faster approval of the bill to avoid encouraging extremism in a region, which in 2017 witnessed a five-month-long conflict between the military and a group affiliated to terror group Islamic State.
The law, which still needs to be approved by the Senate and signed by Duterte, aims to create a self-governing structure with greater powers in the autonomous region.
The BBL is the result of a peace agreement signed in March 2014 between the Philippines government — led by former President Benigno Aquino — and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), in which the rebels had agreed to give up armed struggle in exchange for the creation of an autonomous region under their rule.
The agreement, however, had clashed with constitutional provisions and faced opposition in Parliament, eventually getting stalled after 44 police officers were killed in an ambush in Mindanao in January 2015.
The MILF was formally established in 1984 by a splinter group of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) following a split when the latter agreed to withdraw the demand of complete independence in 1977.
The MNLF signed a peace deal in 1996 in exchange for being allowed to govern the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, a demarcation which is set to be replaced by the autonomous region promised to the MILF.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Employment, Overseas, World
Manila : Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has announced that a ban on Filipinos working in Kuwait will be made permanent and he urged those still working in that country to return home, state media reported on Sunday.
Duterte made the comments during a speech on Saturday in Singapore on the sidelines of the 32nd ASEAN Summit, Efe news reported.
“Those who are there in Kuwait… I now appeal for your sense of patriotism. Come home,” Duterte said.
Duterte in February issued a temporary ban on sending additional workers to Kuwait pending an investigation into the murder of a 29-year-old Filipino house worker, whose body was found in the freezer of her employers. They have been sentenced to death for the murder.
The case sparked outrage in the Philippines and has triggered a diplomatic crisis as thousands of domestic workers left the Gulf nation.
The Philippine Ambassador in Kuwait, Renato Villa, has also been recalled.
The two nations are due to sign a MoU on the protection of overseas Filipino workers in June.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
By Maecy Alviar,
Zamboanga City, Philippines: Kuwait on Wednesday declared the Philippine ambassador a persona non-grata and ordered him to leave the country in a week after embassy staff “rescued” Filipino domestic workers from their employers’ homes following reports of abuse.
Renato Villa confirmed his expulsion to local media but declined to comment further.
Citing the “undiplomatic acts” by Philippine embassy staff, Kuwait also recalled its ambassador to the Philippines, Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh, for consultations.
Kuwait decried a “flagrant and grave breach of rules and regulations that govern diplomatic action” by embassy staff who encouraged and helped Filipino workers flee their employers’ homes.
A video showing embassy officials rescuing Filipino domestic workers from Kuwaiti homes was released by the Philippine Foreign Affairs Department to local media last week as an update on the ongoing rescue of distressed Filipinos.
Regarding it as a violation of diplomatic norms and sovereignty, Kuwait summoned Villa at least three times.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano apologized Tuesday, saying “this was all done in the spirit of emergency action to protect Filipinos”.
“I apologize to my counterpart, and we apologize to the Kuwaiti government, Kuwaiti people and the leaders of Kuwait if they were offended by some actions taken by the Philippine embassy in Kuwait, but we have explained to their ambassador, and the ambassador has accepted this explanation,” Cayetano told reporters.
In a statement Thursday, the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs called Kuwait’s move deeply disturbing and inconsistent with assurances given by ambassador Saleh during a meeting last Tuesday.
“The Department will ask Ambassador Saleh to explain first thing tomorrow why the Kuwaiti Government reneged on the agreement reached with him to work together to move bilateral relations between the Philippines and Kuwait forward,” said the statement.
—AA