MANILA - The ban on the deployment of all Filipino workers to Kuwait stays.

The Philippine government made this clear even after a Kuwaiti court sentenced a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife to death by hanging for the murder of Filipino worker Joanna Demafelis.

The couple was convicted in absentia in a case that prompted Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to impose the OFW ban.

"The total ban on sending OFWs to Kuwait is still on. But of course an agreement, a memorandum of understanding is being formulated, and hopefully the state parties will come to terms as to how our OFWs in Kuwait as well as in other Middle Eastern countries will be protected. So, basically that will be a solution to this ban," Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra said.

The death of Demafelis, whose body was found in a freezer in Kuwait earlier this year, has prompted a diplomatic crisis between Kuwait and the Philippines, prompting Manila to impose a departure ban for its citizens planning to work in the Gulf state.

The Lebanese-Syrian couple was arrested in February in the Syrian capital Damascus following an Interpol manhunt.

Syrian authorities handed the husband, Nader Essam Assaf, over to Lebanese authorities, while his Syrian wife remained in custody in Damascus.

ANC, April 2, 2018