Sr. Fox joins Mass hours before her forced departure from PHL

Australian missionary Sister Patricia Fox on Saturday joined a thanksgiving Mass in Quezon City, hours before her state-initiated "forced departure" from the country after 27 years of working for social justice in solidarity with farmers and the poor.

WATCH: Emosyonal ang ilang sumalubong kay Sister Patricia Fox bago ang thanksgiving mass. | via @JonathanAndal_ pic.twitter.com/aBZaB6mQZt

— DZBB Super Radyo (@dzbb) November 3, 2018

Emotions ran high as friends and supporters joined the Catholic nun at the venue at St. Joseph's College in Quezon City for the Eucharistic celebration, partly in thanksgiving for her "selfless service for the Filipino poor."

She is scheduled to leave the country tonight as ordered by state authorities. But her departure happens under heavy protest from religious and civil society groups thankful for the missionaries' presence in the country.

Activist group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) in a statement on Saturday said that the expulsion of Sr. Fox is a "great injustice."

"Her being forced to leave the Philippines is a great injustice. The Duterte regime has treated her solidarity with the poor as something undesirable and criminal," Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes said in a statement.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has denied the 72-year-old nun's application for the extension of her temporary visitor's visa and ordered her to leave the country on November 3, said the National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL), which is representing her.

Fox was accused of joining "political activities" prohibited among foreigners. While she admits participating in fact-finding missions and advocating for social justice causes, she maintains her activities are within the scope of her missionary work and are protected by guarantees to free speech and assembly.

She was first arrested then released pending further probe by Philippine authorities in April, shortly after which no less than President Rodrigo Duterte admitted ordering her investigated for "disorderly conduct." —LBG, GMA News