Australian nun ordered to leave PHL

THE BUREAU of Immigration (BI) has ordered Australian missionary Patricia Fox “to leave the Philippines within 30 days from receipt of this order,” the agency said in a statement Monday.

BI noted in its statement it had issued the order that day, adding that the bureau’s board of commissioners “forfeited” Ms. Fox’s missionary visa “due to her involvement in partisan political activities.”

BI Commissioner Jaime H. Morente heads the three-member board, which also includes Associate Commissioners J. Tobias Javier and Aimee TorrefrancaNeri.

Mr. Morente was quoted in the statement as saying that Ms. Fox “was found to have engaged in activities that are not allowed under the terms and conditions of her visa.”

BI detained Ms. Fox last Monday on President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s order, as Mr. Duterte himself subsequently acknowledged, citing her “violation of sovereignty” through her affiliation with activist groups.

A day earlier, a leader of the Party of European Socialists, Deputy SecretaryGeneral Giacomo Filibeck, was barred in Cebu, on his way to attending an assembly by the party-list group Akbayan.

For his part, Presidential Spokesperson Harry L. Roque, Jr. said: “We stand by the Bureau of Immigration’s order to forfeit Sister Patricia Fox‘s privilege of holding a missionary visa and to leave the Philippines. Investigation has been conducted and was determined that the Australian missionary violated the terms and conditions of her visa. Consequently, the same must be forfeited.”

In her statement, Ms. Fox said she was “surprised as I had thought the process was that I would have 10 days to put in a counter affidavit to answer the charges.”

She also said, “I am still hoping for a chance to explain how I see my mission as a religious sister and maybe the decision can be reconsidered.”

Her lawyer Jobert I. Pahilga said the BI order “was issued without due process of law and in violation of Commissioner Morente’s order for Sister Pat to contest the charge within ten (10) days from receipt of the supplemental report of the Intelligence Division.” — with