Is Duterte wrong on Fox, Kuwait and narco-pols?
THE Bureau of Immigration order to deport Australian missionary Sister Patricia Fox, after a BI investigation ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte, cannot but spur animosity.
Critics are also fuming over the diplomatic row with Kuwait and
allegedly involved in drugs. So, did the administration get it all wrong in these three headline issues?
Why Sister Patricia must go
On Sister Patricia, many naturally wonder what one should fear from a 71- year- old missionary serving the poor and underprivileged, indeed, the very people the President has often stood up for.
Understandably, Catholic bishops are gravely concerned, if not incensed over the detention and impending deportation of a nun who has spent 27 years in the country ministering to and standing up for farmers, workers, and indigenous people.
As Sister Patricia rightly noted in her above-quoted statement now going around social media, that her brave and laudable struggle against oppression and abuse of the underprivileged got her in trouble.
But the problem may not be her advocacy itself, but the political action accompanying it.
landless, better pay and working conditions, and indigenous rights often join rallies. Unfortunately for Sister Patri
- ers, under a 2015 Immigration order approved by then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.
BI Operations Order SBM-2014025 states: “Foreign tourists are prohibited from … joining, supporting, contributing or involving themselves in whatever manner in any rally, assembly or gathering, whether for or against the government.”
Also imposed in other countries, the prohibition prevents outside powers from interfering in domestic affairs through their citizens. It also avoids international frictions if protesting foreigners get arrested, injured — or worse.
also have been in rallies organized -
the activist arm of the insurgent Communist Party of the Philip-
Sister Patricia was photographed in at least one labor protest orga-
Mayo Uno. She may not be working with KMU, but her presence
facility may boost support for the just Australian missionaries and European legislators, but Chinese claiming our territory or Kuwaitis protesting our deployment ban on overseas Filipino workers?
Cayetano should not resign
Which brings us to the oil- rich Middle Eastern kingdom of just over a million Arabs, which recently sent our ambassador packing after the online posting of a video showing
with embassy help.
Kuwait claimed the rescue violated its laws and sovereignty, and the viral footage shamed the nation already miffed by
month over the deaths of two Filipinas, including one whose corpse was hidden in a freezer by her Lebanese and Syrian employ-
Even senators have lambasted Ambassador Renato Villa and his staff. President Duterte had to meet the Kuwaiti ambassador over the incident, and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano apologized. Yet the kingdom still ordered Villa out and recalled its envoy.
This week, career diplomats reportedly with the Union of Foreign
Duterte, asking that Secretary Cayetano and his DFA aides resign for gross incompetence.
Should these officials Absolutely not.
First, no domestic or international law and no sovereignty are violated when embassy personnel quit? help their nationals in trouble. Consular staff do that all the time, with hotlines for citizens in trouble.
with local authorities, as Ambassador Villa said he did for the OFW rescue, which Kuwait has not disputed. Or they can act on their own. Either way, rescuing the Filipina in distress was legal and laudable.
Was it wrong to video the op
- cused of doing nothing for OFWs.
escape maltreatment, it should be able to show and tell.
What was lacking in discretion and diplomacy was posting the video online. For that our highest
-
culpa for one video gone viral.
Yet for that single miscue in a successful videotaped rescue, which began with constant monitoring of OFWs in trouble, seasoned diplomats want Secretary Cayetano and
being incompetent here?
Naming the narco-pols
Some senators, along with rights groups, are also raising hell over the public release by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency of a carefully verified list of barangay captains and council members allegedly involved in narcotics.
Some are users, pushers, or both, says PDEA, but most protect the drug trade in their communities. Another list of provincial, city and
narcotics is set to be made public.
The Commission on Human Rights has lambasted PDEA,
Rights Watch warned that the barangay narco-list could become a hit list to be targeted like the thousands of suspects killed in
Maybe PDEA should have just given its list and supporting intelligence to several media outfits for them to publish. If challenged, reporters could cite confidential sources. And no one would take them to court for fear that his or her druglaced activities would become even more public.
If the press name narco-politi-