Fox to DOJ: Review deportation order
MANILA— Sister Patricia Fox on Monday asked the Department of Justice to rule on her deportation
case without the influence of President Rodrigo Duterte, who publicly called her an
“undesirable alien.”
Fox and her lawyers filed a Petition for Review before the DOJ, in a bid to overturn the Bureau of Immigration’s deportation order against the Australian nun.
In a statement from Fox’s camp, they said that the Australian missionary “asked the DOJ not to prejudge her case like what the BI has done.”
This was Fox’s argument when they appealed the deportation order issued last July. Her camp accused the Immigration of “prejudging” her case when it took “judicial notice” of the president’s pronouncements against her.
But the Immigration on August 29, upheld its earlier ruling and ordered Fox deported.
Fox said that the Immigration bureau focused mainly on Duterte’s statements and “not on the merits of the case.”
“What we are saying here is that Sister Pat did not involve herself in so-called political activities but she was doing fact-finding missions, humanitarian missions that she has been doing in the past 27 years,” lawyer Kathy Panguban told reporters.
The Immigration, however, stressed that the deportation order was issued due to Fox’s violation of the “limitations and conditions of Commonwealth Act 612, Section 9 (g) missionary visa and undesirable under Article 2711, Section 69.”
Immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval earlier said: “Sister Fox clearly violated the limitation and conditions of her visa, which specifically allowed her to engage in missionary and religious work, not political activities in the Philippines.” —