Sister Fox to elevate case to DOJ
MANILA — Vowing to exhaust all legal remedies available, Sister Patricia Fox yesterday said that she will elevate her deportation case to the Department of Justice.
Fox's camp yesterday said that they will file an appeal before the DOJ on Monday in hope that the department will not “prejudge her case.”
In appealing her complaint, Fox argued that the bureau's “judicial notice” of President Rodrigo Duterte's branding of the nun as an “undesirable alien” meant that it has already prejudged her case.
The Immigration bureau on August 29 has upheld its deportation order against Fox, saying that she failed to present new matters in her motion for reconsideration that would warrant a reversal of the ruling.
The BI said that Fox has 30 days to appeal her case, or she would have to be temporarily held by the agency.
Fox's camp vowed to exhaust all legal remedies to overturn the deportation order. Lawyer Maria Sol Taule said that they are willing to elevate the case up to the Supreme Court if the need arises.
Fox, for her part, said in the televised press conference said in Filipino: “I want to say that I want to fight for this case until the end. I asked for a renewal of my visa to see this case until the end.” She added that she wants to continue helping Filipinos.
The Australian nun has spent 27 years in the country, helping those behind bars, indigenous peoples and land reform advocates.
VISA RENEWAL
Fox will also seek for a clarification of her status as her missionary visa is about to expire on September 5, her camp said in a separate statement.
Fox, through her lawyer Jojo Pahilga, applied for a visa renewal last August 20 at the BI main office in Intramuros.
Pahilga stressed that the deportation case against Fox is different from her motion to renew her visa. “They can renew the visa subject to the deportation case,” the lawyer said.
Fox's camp also claimed that her complaint is a case for “human rights defenders and other international friends who wanted to extend solidarity with the Philippines.”