MANILA - Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Thursday said he supports a ban on the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait, but warned that it may affect Manila's trade relations with the rich oil-producing country.

The Philippines on Monday announced a ban on sending Kuwait-bound overseas Filipino workers, including those who had already obtained employment permit. The deployment ban excludes OFWs vacationing in the Philippines or those returning to Kuwait under a renewed contract.

Drilon, a former labor secretary, said countries under a deployment ban typically attempt to exert pressure on trade ties.

"There are consequences which we must be prepared to handle, particularly in area of trade... We should be able to withstand whatever pressure Kuwait may put on us," he told reporters.

PANOORIN: Pilipinas, dapat paghandaan ang epekto ng deployment ban ng mga manggagawa sa pakikipagrelasyon nito sa Kuwait, ayon kay Sen. Drilon | via @ZandroDZMM pic.twitter.com/bOX9G58Qau

— DZMM TeleRadyo (@DZMMTeleRadyo) February 15, 2018

Kuwait's minister of foreign affairs has condemned the deployment ban, suggesting that this could damage bilateral ties.

• Kuwait blasts Duterte's call to evacuate workers

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque declined to comment on the ban's potential impact on trade relations pending a meeting between Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Kuwaiti embassy officials on Thursday afternoon.

"I'd like to think that the long-term Philippine-Kuwaiti relations will not be affected. However, this consultation between the secretary of foreign affairs and the Kuwaiti ambassador, as we all know, is a very important consultation," Roque said in a press briefing.

Authorities say 252,000 Filipinos work in the Gulf state, many as maids. They are among over 2 million employed in the region, whose remittances are a lifeline to the Philippine economy.

With a report from Zandro Ochona, ABS-CBN News