The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is ending 2024 with what could be one of its most significant achievements.

The successful repatriation on Dec. 18 of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina drug convict imprisoned for 14 years and on death row in Indonesia, was the culmination of years-long efforts of the agency to commute her death sentence. And the DFA got more - she was returned to the Philippines.

Veloso's repatriation came with no strings attached as Indonesia manifested that it was not expecting anything in return from the Philippines.

The DFA said it's a "win for diplomacy" as it further improves the relations between the two neighboring countries.

This year, the agency also managed to ease tension in the South China Sea.

In the first half of the year, Filipino troops experienced successive harassment from Chinese counterparts—including dangerous maneuvers, laser pointing, water cannon and ramming, among others—in Ayungin Shoal during their resupply missions to the grounded BRP Sierra Madre.

Although Ayungin is well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, China kept asserting that the feature is theirs and had to undertake actions that other nations saw as risking Filipino troops’ lives.

So the DFA needed to meddle and launch sets of dialogue with Chinese diplomats. They managed their respective differences and pacified the brewing tension between governments and militaries of both sides.

A "provisional agreement" was reached. Cases of aggression died down. Filipino troops were able to continue with their resupply missions, without any other untoward incidents.

But that was only temporary. When everything seemed to be going back to normal, harassment incidents were later reported and transferred instead to Bajo de Masinloc or Scarborough Shoal. It is DFA's next assignment.

The agency also facilitated the official visits to the country of more than a dozen foreign ministers as the Philippines sought to expand its ties with countries from across the world. These included foreign ministers who undertake a visit to the Philippines finally after several decades.

Among countries whose top diplomats visited the Philippines this year were Germany, Switzerland, the United States, India, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Lithuania, Hungary, New Zealand, Malaysia, Holy See, Thailand, Japan, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Poland and Denmark.

The Philippines' cooperation with these countries on people-to-people, cybersecurity, military, maritime, tourism, environment, human rights, critical minerals, clean energy, trade and investment, science and technology, higher education, interfaith dialogue, agriculture, tourism and labor and migration relations, among others, were bolstered during the visits.