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Australian missionary nun Sr. Patricia Fox ordered released for further probe


The Australian missionary nun arrested on Monday for allegedly joining political activities in the Philippines has been released for further investigation after authorities found she holds a valid missionary visa.

Antonette Bucasas-Mangrobang, spokesperson of the Bureau of Immigration, confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that Sister Patricia Fox, 71, has been ordered freed from BI custody.

The nun's lawyer, Jobert Pahilga, also confirmed she has been released from her detention room.

Sr. Patricia Fox, a 71-year-old Australian nun (center), confers with her visitors inside a room at the Bureau of Immigration in Manila on Tuesday, April 17, 2018, as she waits for the release papers following her arrest on Monday. Danny Pata

 

Fox, a missionary of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion, was apprehended on the strength of a mission order issued by Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, Mangrobang earlier said.

The elderly nun's arrest and detention was met with criticism, with Senator Nancy Binay even wondering how Fox could be a threat to society.

According to a press statement from the bureau, Morente approved the recommendation of the BI legal division that Fox be released for further investigation "after it was established that the Australian nun holds a valid missionary visa and, thus...is a properly documented alien."

Fox purportedly turned in her passport and immigration documents, which reportedly show that she was issued her missionary visa on October 15 last year, and that it will not expire until September 9, the statement said.

BI legal division head Arvin Cesar Santos was quoted in the statement as telling Morente in a note that while the missionary was alleged to have joined farmers' protests, "she was not doing so at the time BI operatives served her the mission order" on Monday.

"Santos averred that Fox is not covered by inquest proceedings as the latter will only apply to aliens arrested after being caught in flagrante violating immigration laws," the statement said.

He said that under BI rules, "Fox should undergo preliminary investigation to determine if deportation charges should be filed against her before the bureau's board of commissioners."

Revoked

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that Fox's "temporary permit" to stay in the country is now being considered revoked by the BI due to information that she had been involved in partisan political activity. 

"But there is a process to be complied with," Roque told reporters in Boracay.

"Now this is not an arrest, this is an order, an investigation whether not to deport Sister Patricia Fox. And we have decided cases already by the Supreme Court that these arrests are not governed by normal right of an accused in a criminal proceedings because this is for purposes of and preparatory to deportation," he added.

Militant rights watchdog group Karapatan earlier called for the missionary's release, citing Pahilga's denial of her alleged participation in an anti-government rally in Tagum City.

"She was in Region 9 as part of her religious and missionary work to immerse and help farmers and indigenous people pursuant to the mission for peace, justice and promotion of human rights of her congregation," Pahilga was quoted as saying.

However, he confirmed in the statement that Fox visited farmer-detainees in Tagum City and striking Coca-cola workers as part of a fact-finding mission, but that the mission was for the purpose of documenting alleged human rights violations against farmers and Lumad in Mindanao.

The arrest of the elderly nun, said to be an agrarian reform and human rights advocate, came after the entry denial and eventual blacklisting of an Italian political party official for allegedly denouncing President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-illegal drugs campaign when he visited the country last year. —with a report by Virgil Lopez/KG/RSJ/BM, GMA News

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