President Rodrigo Duterte appealed to the 200,000-plus Filipino workers in Kuwait to come home where their skills be put to good use by the growing Philippine economy.

"I appeal now to your sense of patriotism. Come home, there are many jobs in the Philippines," Duterte said in a speech before the Philippine community in Singapore Saturday night. "I will look for money and bring all Filipino workers home," he said.

He appealed to Kuwaitis not to "hurt" Filipinos. "I plead that they be given a treatment deserving of a human being," he added.

Duterte said he will talk to the Kuwaiti government once Filipino workers are able to return home.

Duterte's remarks came ahead of a statement to be delivered in Davao late Saturday about the diplomatic row between the Philippines and Kuwait after a video of a rescue operation of Filipinos said to be oppressed by their employers came out online and became viral.

This led to Kuwait expelling Philippine Ambassador Renato Pedro Villa and recalling its envoy in Manila.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has expressed "strong surprise and great displeasure" over the declaration of Villa as persona non grata, the continued detention of four Filipinos hired by the Philippine Embassy and the issuance of arrest warrants against three diplomatic personnel.

Duterte thanked the Emir of Kuwait "for their generosity in the past years". "It seems the Filipinos' style of working doesn't fit their culture, he added." DMS