PALACE: NO CRACKDOWN VS FOREIGN ACTIVISTS

MALACAÑANG - tained that there is no crackdown on foreign critics of the Duterte - tion of Australian missionary Patricia Fox

Palace spokesman Harry Roque said the government was only enforcing the law, which prohibits foreigners from participating in political activities.

He said the government was also implementing Operations Order

SBM 2015-025, the reason cited

when it detained Fox and deported

Party of European Socialists. “Hindipoiyan crackdown. Talaga (That’s not a crackdown. That’s the law.) may be harsh but such is the law,” Roque said in a news conference.

He issued the statement hours after President Rodrigo Duterte admitted that he ordered the investigation of Fox, 71, for her involvement in protest actions.

Roque reiterated that foreigners in the Philippines should not participate in political activities.

united in our common stand that foreigners should not be engaged in any political activity,” Roque said. “So malinawpoangating batas (Our law is clear): Those in the Philippines are here because of our consent for them to be here, but they are not allowed to engaged in any political activity,” he added.

Fox was released on Tuesday but she will undergo further investigation.

Her detention came a day after Filibeck was barred from attending a conference and deported for being on the immigration blacklist.

Some rights group and opposition lawmakers raised concerns that the immigration order banning foreign tourists from participating in political activities would be used to harass and arrest more foreigners critical of the Philippine government.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan said the emerging trend on crackdown against foreign activists was “alarming as exhibited by the harassment and casual arrests of the two human rights advocates, who were not even in protest activities or rallies when taken into custody.”

“These incidents will trigger more questions on what the government is trying to conceal,” said Pangilinan, who heads the Liberal Party.

Fox was involved in human rights missions in Mindanao. Filibeck, meanwhile, had denounced killings linked to Duterte’s drug war in his 2017 Manila visit.

Roque said the country had in the past kicked out foreigners who participated in political partisan activities.

He cited as example the case of Dutch activist Thomas van Beersum who was caught in photos taunting a crying policeman during a protest against former president Benigno Aquino 3rd’s State of the Nation address in 2013.

“Walapong crackdown. langpotalagaangbatas (There’s no crackdown. That’s the law),”