By William Casis

Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go lauded  the Kuwaiti criminal court that recently sentenced to death by hanging a Kuwaiti woman for killing Filipina domestic worker Jeanelyn Padernal Villavende in December 2019. 

The Kuwaiti woman’s husband was sentenced to four years in prison for covering up and not reporting the crime.

The murder of Villavende, Go said,  prompted the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration in January to approve a resolution imposing total deployment ban to Kuwait. 

This came after it was found by the National Bureau of Investigation autopsy that the victim  was sexually abused and tortured.

The NBI also reported that Villavende’s brain, heart, and some internal organs were missing.

She also suffered multiple traumatic injuries, including to the genitalia, which indicates that she was sexually abused.

Go earlier said, “I condemned the killing of Jeanelyn amid the May 2018 agreement between the Philippines and Kuwaiti government, there are still reports of violence and abuses committed against our fellow Filipinos in Kuwait.”

Go was also been instrumental in the repatriation recently of overseas Filipino worker Malik Darimbang who had been stuck in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for six years after he got involved in a road accident which led to the death of a Pakistani national.

He also played a role in the subsequent granting of pardon to Roderick Aguinaldo, an OFW detained in Bahrain for four years after he was convicted over the death of a foreign national in the country. Aguinaldo was sentenced to death until his pardon and release from prison as a result of the efforts of the Philippine government.

Go assisted in bringing back home in 2019 several OFWs from Kuwait who were victimized by a Filipino illegal recruiter and were forced to engage in sexual services.