Saudi King Personally Toured President Duterte on His Home
President Rodrigo Duterte has been personally toured by Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud on his private residence.
The Saudi king has invited President Duterte to visit his private residence in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. King Salman rarely treats and invite other people to visit his home, but the Philippine president is lucky to receive the invitation while he was on his official state visit to the Middle East kingdom.
King Salman led the members of the Saudi Royal family to welcome Mr. Duterte and giving full military honors upon his arrival at the royal residence in Rawdhat Khuraim. The special honors given to Duterte was due to his chief executive’s decisiveness, which was admired by the Saudi monarch, according to presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella.
The bilateral meeting held by the two country leaders were attended by the Duterte’s Cabinet members and was also joined by Senator Alan Cayetano. Duterte and Salman have witnessed the signing of agreements for regular consultation between Saudi and Philippines for the protection of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
Abella, who also joined the bilateral meeting said that the fate of the Filipinos on Saudi death row was not discussed either or included on the meeting’s agenda. Saudi Arabia has also the largest number of OFWs.
The Philippine government would shoulder the cost of repatriation of the undocumented OFWs covered by the Saudi amnesty. Those OFWs would be carried by plane back to the country.
Mr. Duterte was set to meet the business and Filipino communities in Saudi Arabia on late Wednesday (April 12, 2017). The Philippine president was also scheduled to visit Bahrain and Qatar after his official state visit in KSA.
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