President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday an audit is being undertaken to determine where to implement total deployment ban of overseas workers apart from Kuwait.

Duterte made the remark during his visit in the wake of Joanna Demafelis, an overseas Filipino worker who was found dead inside a freezer after almost a year of looking for her, in Sara, Iloilo City.

"We are doing an audit now and find out the places where we deploy Filipinos and our countrymen suffer brutal treatment and human degradation," Duterte said when asked where he intends to impose total deployment ban of OFWs.

He said the government has to have a list of the countries where there were reported and unreported cases of OFW maltreatment. "That would be a long, long task," he said.

He reiterated that the deployment ban in Kuwait will continue.

Duterte vowed justice for the death of Demafelis that prompted him to order a total deployment ban to Kuwait.

But Duterte said the only way to give justice is to arrest first Demafelis' former employers.

"That would allow me now to initiate charges...until then, we'll just have to wait and pray that they will be apprehended or arrested," he said.

Senator Nancy Binay has also proposed a total deployment ban of household workers in the Middle East due to alleged cases of OFW abuses.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, who was with the President in Iloilo, said Binay's proposal would be studied.

He said the primary consideration of the president is to ensure the rights of the OFWs are protected wherever they are. Celerina Monte/DMS