Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has directed Philippine Chargè d’Affaires to Kuwait Mohd. Nordin Pedrosina Lomondot to halt the payment of the Php7.5 million blood money over the death of a Filipino maid in December, 2019.
“The Php7.5 million blood money to pay of this horror is changing hands even as I tweet; ordered Kuwait PE (Philippine Embassy) Lomondot to stop it,” Locsin said in a tweet on Monday.
Locsin was referring to the case of Jeanelyn Padernal Villavende whose female Kuwaiti employer was meted with a death sentence by the Kuwaiti Criminal Court last month.
Reports showed that Villavende was sexually abused and physically battered before she died at the hands of her employer.
Locsin insisted that the Philippines “must match” the Php7.5 million blood money offered to the surviving family of the victim and ordered Lomondot to ensure that the court judgment of death is carried out.
In a separate tweet, the DFA chief ordered Lomondot to report to him what steps have been taken to halt the release of the blood money.
“Lomondot to report in writing the shenanigans going on there and what he’s done about it…what he’s has done to stop it. We had this; he lost it; he’s gotta get it back. All trips to Middle East for photo ops and palabas stopped. Travel money needed to match blood money,” Locsin said in a post.
The foreign affairs secretary, however, did not identify those behind the shenanigans involved in the payment of the blood money.