Senator Raffy Tulfo on Monday sought a legislative inquiry to review and re-examine the existing bilateral agreement between the Philippines and Kuwait in regard to the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Tulfo filed Senate Resolution No. 448 following the murder of Jullebee Calabis Ranara, a domestic helper in Kuwait.

In SR 448, he said this was not the first time that such a tragedy happened to an OFW.

Citing information from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), the Senator said a total of 196 OFWs were slain in Kuwait alone.

He added that 80 percent of the reported deaths resulted from physical abuse.

"In 2018, Joana Demafelis was killed and in 2019, Jeanelyn Villavende was also murdered and found in her employer's freezer," he said.

Two years after Demafelis' death, the national government issued a deployment ban in Kuwait, but it was lifted a month later.

"Despite the aforesaid lifting of the deployment ban to Kuwait, and the use of enforcement of a new Standard Employment Contract, tragedies such as those of Joanna, Jeanelyn, and Jullibee's, remain a perplexing reality,” the Senator pointed out.

Apart from the review of the bilateral agreement, Tulfo also seeks to establish “stricter policies, preventive measures, and applicable sanctions or ban in the deployment of OFWs in Kuwait.”