Mother asks gov’t to help bring home remains of daughter slain in Jordan
MABALACAT CITY, Pampanga, Philippines — The mother of a 34-year-old overseas Filipino worker (OFW) murdered in Amman, Jordan, appealed to Philippine authorities to facilitate the prompt return of her daughter’s remains.
The OFW, identified as Mary Grace Viray Santos, a single mother of two teenage daughters from Macabebe town in Pampanga province, went missing in Amman, Jordan, on Oct. 11. Her body was found a day later in a still undisclosed place.
In a local television interview on Monday, the victim’s mother, Maria Lisa, asked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and concerned government agencies to help bring home her daughter’s remains.
“I’m appealing for help, especially to President Bongbong Marcos, Owwa [Overseas Workers Welfare Administration] Administrator Arnell Ignacio, Undersecretary Hans Cacdac, and Sen. Raffy Tulfo,” Maria Lisa said.
A resident of San Roque village in Macabebe, Mary Grace went to Amman to work as a domestic helper for an elderly couple in 2015.
Her mother said she received a phone call from Mary Grace’s fellow domestic helper in Amman, telling her that her daughter was missing.
“After the call, we saw (on Facebook Messenger) that Mary Grace was online. We tried to chat with her and call her, but she did not reply,” Maria Lisa said in Kapampangan.
Fearing that something bad had happened to her daughter, Maria Lisa went to the Owwa regional office in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga’s capital, the next day to report that Mary Grace was missing.
Owwa personnel took her statements and told her to wait for a call or an update about her daughter’s case.
On Oct. 13, the family received information from another OFW in the Middle East that Mary Grace’s body had already been found.
Raped, stabbed?
“That night I received a call from Owwa San Fernando, asking me to go to their office the next day. When I went there, I was told that the initial report was that my daughter was raped,” Maria Lisa said.
She then told the administrator that she had also received information that her daughter had been stabbed.
Maria Lisa and other family members were eventually brought to the Department of Migrant Workers and were asked to provide documents to facilitate the repatriation of the OFW’s remains.
“My daughter is a single mother. Her eldest is 16 years old and has a congenital heart disease. That is why my daughter is in Jordan, to send my granddaughters to school and for the treatment of her eldest daughter, who is scheduled for surgical operation,” Maria Lisa said.
She said they also went to the Pampanga provincial capitol where Gov. Dennis Pineda’s executive assistant, Angie Blanco, helped her secure a special power of attorney needed by the Owwa and the Philippine Embassy in Jordan to facilitate the return of Mary Grace’s remains.
“We were assured by the DSWD [provincial Social Welfare Office] and Peso [provincial Public Employment Service Office] that all of our requests for assistance will be given by the governor,” she said.
Arrested
Maria Lisa said they had been informed by other OFWs in Jordan that her daughter’s attacker, a minor Egyptian male, was already identified and arrested by Jordanian authorities.
“We were told that the suspect will be sentenced to death by hanging. But the execution will not be done until after two years because the suspect is still a minor,” she said.
The suspect, Maria Lisa said, is the son of the Egyptian gardener of Mary Grace’s employer, and he worked only as his father’s temporary replacement.
Quoting Mary Grace’s fellow domestic helper in Amman, Maria Lisa said the gardener failed to report for work and sent his son to do his job instead on that tragic day.
But various posts of OFWs in Jordan cited different reports identifying the assailant as the son of a house guard.
“It is very, very painful for me just to imagine how my daughter fought her attacker. It’s really, really painful. I cannot do anything but cry,” Maria Lisa said, adding that her pain is aggravated by the thought of her granddaughter’s need for continuous medication and that her surgery would no longer happen.
Maria Lisa said she had been struggling to be strong for the sake of Mary Grace’s two daughters.
She said the Philippine Embassy in Jordan had told her that Mary Grace’s remains would be brought home to Macabebe within the month.
