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Villanueva cites policy problem: Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva questions the existing policy with regards to the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), particularly in Kuwait where he noticed an increasing number of abuses and human rights violations. During Wednesday’s public hearing February 8, 2023 of the Committee on Migrant Workers, Villanueva said he was having a hard time figuring out the country’s policy on OFWs considering the continued abuses against migrant workers in Kuwait. Villanueva said that based on the record in 2017, there are a total of 6,526 cases of abuses against household workers in Kuwait; 6,039 in 2018; 5,961 in 2019; 4,903 in 2020; 13,351 in 2021; and 24,549 in 2022. “Do we evaluate our memorandum of agreement ? Do we evaluate our deployment ban? Is there anything else we need to look at, not just the checklist to prevent this from happening? Do we assess and figure out if there are any shortcomings? Is there room for improvement because the increase in welfare cases in Kuwait alone is 376 percent? Villanueva pointed out. Villanueva also blamed the inept monitoring system of overseas manpower agencies that failed to closely oversee the condition of the OFWs. (Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)