Remains of OFW rape-slay victim in Jordan arrive in Pampanga

A MOTHER’S GRIEF Maria Lisa Santos, the grieving mother of Mary Grace Viray Santos, an overseas Filipino worker raped and killed in Jordan, hugs the wooden casket of her daughter that arrived on Saturday at Ninoy Aquino International Airport. —PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PAMPANGA PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

MABALACAT CITY—The remains of Mary Grace Viray Santos, the 34-year-old overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who was raped and murdered in Amman, Jordan, finally arrived in her hometown Macabebe, Pampanga on Saturday night.

The slain OFW’s body arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 on board an Emirates Airways Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and was immediately transported to her hometown.

The provincial government of Pampanga, in a statement on Saturday night, said the repatriation of Santos’ remains was facilitated by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and the Department of Migrant Workers.

Families and relatives of Santos had mixed emotions over the Kapampangan domestic helper’s homecoming.

“This is really painful. You are finally home, but you are no longer alive,” a relative said in the vernacular on a social media post on Sunday.

“Thank you that my cousin will finally come home. My auntie Lisa’s (Mary Grace’s mother) situation is really pitiful. She and the siblings of my cousin Mary Grace [are in pain],” another stated.

The family is yet to schedule the slain OFW’s burial.

READ: Long-term solution needed for abuses vs OFWs – Migrante

Suspect

The 16-year-old Egyptian suspect in the rape-slay of Santos is already in Jordanian police’s custody, but Maria Lisa Santos, the slain OFW’s mother, said in an interview over a local television network on Oct. 18 that the death penalty seemed not enough punishment for the suspect.

“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,” she said in the vernacular.

Maria Lisa said she had been told by their contacts in Jordan that Mary Grace’s 16-year-old attacker, if proven guilty of the gruesome crime, will be hanged to death when he reaches the age of 18.

On social media, the OFW community in Jordan and other parts of the Middle East are seeking justice for Mary Grace.

Numerous Filipinos working in Jordan, particularly those who knew Mary Grace personally, have been asking for justice for the murdered Kapampangan domestic helper.

Found inside cabinet

While Maria Lisa said that the suspect is a son of a gardener, the OFWs in Jordan said on their social media posts that he is a son of a “hari” or a security guard.

The Philippine and Jordanian governments have not released any official information surrounding the alleged rape and the cause of death of Mary Grace.

However, social media posts and chat conversations of OFWs in Jordan said that Mary Grace was sent by her Jordanian employer to clean a sibling’s house on Oct. 10 but she failed to return. The next day, the Jordanian employer called the authorities, telling them that the Filipino domestic helper went missing.

OFWs in Jordan said Mary Grace’s body was found inside a gas tank cabinet in the house of her employer’s sibling on Oct. 12.

“We ate together at Nanay Thelma. Shameless is the one who demonized you. You were missing for two days, it turned out you were murdered and hid[den] inside a cabinet,” Mary Grace’s fellow domestic helper said in her post on Oct. 12. INQ