Philippines welcomes death sentence for Kuwaiti woman who killed maid

Jeanelyn Villavende's death prompted a temporary ban on Filipinos travelling to Kuwait for work

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has often expressed support for China, even though his country has a long-standing treaty with the US. Reuters

The Philippines welcomed a Kuwaiti court's decision to sentence a Kuwaiti woman to death by hanging for the murder of her Filipino maid, who succumbed to months of horrific abuse in December 2019.

The death of Jeanelyn Villavende, 26, caused outrage in the Philippines and prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to temporarily ban citizens from going to work in Kuwait for a second time after a similar incident in 2018.

Philippines Foreign Secretary Teddy Locsin Jr thanked Kuwait for the sentence passed on Wednesday against Villavende's employer. The woman's husband was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for covering up the crime.

Mr Locsin also thanked Kuwait’s ambassador to the Philippines, Musaed Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh, and the lawyer for the Philippines embassy in Kuwait, Fawziya Al Sabah.

“They took my vow seriously: blood for blood, life for life. Thank you, Kuwait,” Mr Locsin wrote on Twitter. “To my brother, the Kuwait Ambassador to the PH, I owe you a debt of blood gratitude. My thanks and that of my nation and people is eternal.”

Kuwaiti health authorities said Villavende had died from "acute failure of heart and respiration" as a result of shock and numerous injuries to the vascular nervous system. An autopsy in the Philippines found signs of sexual abuse.

According to the Philippines Inquirer, Villavende was from South Cotabato province and had worked in Kuwait for just five months before her death.

In a statement announcing the court's ruling, the Philippines ambassador to Kuwait, Mohammed Lomondot, said the case against Villavende's employers "stood on solid ground – born out of the swift and transparent investigation made by Kuwaiti authorities".

“May the court’s decision on the Villavende murder case serve as a reminder to everyone that no Filipino is a slave to anyone, anywhere and everywhere, and that justice will always come to the defence of the weak and the oppressed,” he said.

Relatives of Villavende told Philippines media they welcomed the death sentence against the woman but felt her husband should have received the same.

In 2018, President Duterte ordered all Filipino workers in Kuwait to return home and banned citizens from seeking work there after the body of a Filipina maid was discovered stuffed in a refrigerator in a flat in Hawally.

Joanna Daniela Demafelis was killed almost a year before her body was found in February 2018.

A Kuwaiti court tried the woman's employers, a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife, in their absence after they fled to their respective countries and sentenced them to death by hanging.

Mr Duterte's work ban was lifted after the Philippines and Kuwait signed a deal to regulate the working conditions of domestic workers.