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Australian nun Patricia Fox ordered deported


The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has ordered the deportation of Australian Catholic missionary Patricia Fox on grounds that include participation in "political activities," almost two months after the Department of Justice (DOJ) granted her a reprieve.

A resolution dated Thursday, July 19, shows the BI decided that the 71-year-old nun was an undesirable alien and that she has violated the limitations and conditions of her missionary visa.

The document, approved by the BI Board of Commissioners, ordered her deportation to Australia and the inclusion of her name in the bureau's blacklist, barring her from reentering the Philippines.

This development comes close to two months after the DOJ, through Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, reversed an earlier BI order that forfeited Fox's missionary visa for having no legal basis.

Sought for comment, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said: “That’s the law. Dura lex sed lex [The law may be harsh, but it is the law].”

Fox is charged with flouting the terms of her missionary visa — her pass to 27 years of pro-peasant and pro-human rights work in the Philippines — by joining political rallies, fact-finding missions and conferences in various areas of the country.

The BI found these activities "evidently beyond the 'nature' of authorized duties and responsibilities for which she was assigned as a missionary worker" as represented by her congregation and approved by the bureau.

Immigration authorities also took issue with her failure to inform the bureau that she would "perform activities beyond her assigned duties," which they decided constitutes "gross misrepresentation or neglect" in violation of the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940.

Moreover, the BI found Fox's participation in political rallies and protests in collaboration with labor or cause-oriented groups to be outside the scope of her missionary visa.

"We find the messages posted in the banners such as 'Free All Political Prisoners;' 'to respect human rights;' 'resume peace talks;' 'to implement genuine agrarian reform;' 'to ban destructive mining;' 'to respect workers'' security of tenure and provide them decent and human wages;' or the 'protect the OFW' as undoubtedly dealing with political issues rather than purely religious or missionary concerns," the BI said.

Fox's lawyer, Jobert Pahilga, said they will appeal the BI's decision, and raise the matter to the DOJ again if necessary.

Soon after Fox was arrested and detained overnight in April, President Rodrigo Duterte admitted he himself ordered the nun investigated for "disorderly conduct." — RSJ, GMA News

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