Philippine foreign secretary says he has to finish talks with Kuwait

AGENCIES
MANILA
PHILIPPINE Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano called on the people pushing for his resignation to allow him to finish the negotiations with Kuwait first.
Cayetano said that every Filipino has a right to call for any official's resignation but doing so at the moment would"weaken" the government's position.
"Any Filipino, it's his right to call for any official's resignation. So I am asking them: Let us finish our job before we weaken our position," Cayetano told reporters in Riyadh.
He added that what irked career officials was the news that they have called for the resignation of Cayetano without proof.
Earlier this month, The STAR reported that career officers at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) are calling for the resignation of Cayetano and his appointees for gross incompetence that led to the diplomatic row with Kuwait. The DFA had denied this report.
Noting that the negotiations on a memorandum of understanding with Kuwait are drawing to a close, Cayetano said that he would take responsibility if proven that he made a mistake in handling the situation.
"If they want to hold a hearing, if they want to sack me, if they want me to resign, that's their privilege. And if what I did was wrong or the DFA did not do its job, we'll take responsibility," Cayetano said.
"But while we are in the middle of negotiations, in the midst of battle, you will weaken our position. If Cayetano gets hit, the OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker) gets hit too," he added.
The DFA secretary stressed that he is only the"face" of the negotiations with Kuwait and that it was a team effort.
"In a team effort, there is a good guy, a bad guy... That's the way diplomacy works all around the world," Cayetano said.
Cayetano is set to meet with his counterpart, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sabah al Khalid al Sabah to discuss the MOU that would protect the welfare of Filipino workers in the Gulf state.
Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello III and presidential spokesperson Harry Roque earlier met with Kuwaiti officials to seek"normalisation of ties" between the two countries.
Roque announced that the four Filipino drivers arrested after the rescues of OFWs in Kuwait have been freed and the charges against them have been dropped. The Philippine government is still awaiting good news regarding three Filipino diplomats with arrest warrants in the Middle Eastern country.
Kuwait earlier expelled Philippine Ambassador Renato Villa following his remarks on the embassy's rescue operations and the release of a video showing how embassy personnel rescued Filipino domestic helpers from the homes of their employers.