THE Department of Foreign Affairs is taking a “three-pronged approach” in dealing with the diplomatic crisis in Kuwait, stressing the four officials holed up inside the Philippine embassy there were safe but with “limited movement.”
Refusing to name the foreign officials stuck inside the embassy, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the agency was pushing for a 24/7 hotline to the ministry and the police in handling the welfare of the 260,000 overseas Filipino workers there.
“Right now, the people who are there are doing very well,” Cayetano said.
“But their families are informed, and we’re doing everything. “It’s nowhere like a hostage situation. Just restricted movement. To be fair to the Kuwaiti side, there’s no threat,” he added.
Cayetano said the Kuwait government was asking them for a list of Filipino officials who are involved in the uncoordinated rescue mission.
He said that, as part of the security of the Philippine embassy there, the Philippines would not provide any list.
In Malacañang, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said talks between the Philippines and Kuwait continued as the two sides tried to mend ruffled ties following the controversial rescue of Filipino migrants.
Roque said discussions were ongoing between the two nations after Kuwait took offense at the recent rescue of distressed Filipino workers by Philippine embassy officials from employers’ homes in the Gulf state.
Cayetano said the Kuwait government was now conducting an investigation and look at possible charges of kidnapping against the identified senior officials there.
In an earlier report, a Foreign Affairs insider revealed that the three senior officials, who had limited movement and could only stay within the premise of the Philippine embassy, were DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs executive director Raul Dado; DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for International Economic Relations officer Muammar Hassan; and DFA-Assistance-to-Nationals officer Francis Baquiran.
The athree were part of the Rapid Response Team headed by DFA-OUMWA Sarah Lou Arriola, who were able to leave Kuwait via Riyadh before the Kuwaiti government filed warrant arrests against officials involved in the alleged “uncoordinated” rescue operation.
The RRT was formed by the office of the Secretary and OUMWA to augment the team of the Philippine embassy in any conflict areas.
“He selected the top minion for that office who put together the RRT. Considering rank, his office should be dealing with the irascible spin doctors,” the insider said, who spoke under condition of anonymity.
“It is this aspect of operations that shows the weakness in the command and control protocol that they were observing,” the insider said.
But a foreign affairs official, speaking anonymously, said the RRT instead led the said rescue mission where videos were uploaded by some DFA officials.
“The Rapid Response Team are (sic) formed from Manila and was deployed to Kuwait. On top of the operation, who gave them the authorization [to operate]…when an Undersecretary said yes, you have to follow,” the insider said.
However, during the past interviews, Cayetano said that he asked his legal people to review the policies of uploading videos.
He also said President Rodrigo Duterte encouraged the DFA to use the social media to expose cases of abuse against Filipino workers around the world.
“Immediately when I found out about the video, I told them can you review the policies, take out everything, why is it there? But how come I’m not being harsh in punishing people right away? Remember how many times… [has] the President said, ‘let’s be aggressive, if there are cases of abuse, use the social media,” Cayetano told reporters in Singapore.
Asked if the DFA would hold accountable those officials who uploaded and released the videos, DFA-Office of Public Diplomacy officer in charge director Geronimo Suliguin remained mum.
A text message was also sent to Cayetano, but the latter has yet to respond.
The Foreign Affairs insider noted that the DFA held its own protocols pertaining to the documentation of highly-sensitive work and situation, including rescue missions—and that uploading videos was a violation of the agency’s protocol.
“DFA’s spin doctors and megaphones really follow that ‘never deny, seldom affirm, and always distinguish’ line,” the insider said.
So far, Cayetano’s spin doctors, the source alleged, were “playing the heroic or tragic victim card.”
Cayetano has been in the limelight for the past few weeks where some of the diplomats were calling for his resignation for “gross incompetence,” but the DFA denied such petition existed.
Cayetano said he was “actually inspired” by the criticism as long as his agency was able to “take care” of the OFWs.
“We’re actually inspired because when there is a commotion, that means either you are doing something very wrong or you’re doing your job,'' he said.
Tension between the Philippines and Kuwait increased after the DFA uploaded the rescue video where diplomats, consisting of the Rapid Response Team, were seen helping Filipinos to flee from their allegedly abusive employers in Kuwait.
The videos, which angered the Kuwait government, showed a woman running from a home and jumping into a waiting vehicle while another depicted a person sprinting from what looked like a construction site and then speeding off in a black sport utility vehicle.
Kuwait had branded the rescue a violation of its sovereignty, adding fuel to a simmering diplomatic row between the two nations sparked by the murder of a Filipino maid.
The controversial rescue video resulted in Kuwait’s decision to recall its envoy in Manila; expel Philippine ambassador Renato Villa and handed arrest order against three involved diplomats.