Deportation of Sister Fox shameful, offensive treatment of pro-poor missionary

Philippine Immigration bureau's decision to deport Australian nun Patricia Fox is an embarrassment, an unacceptable treatment of a pro-poor missionary, a Catholic bishop said Friday.

"Nakalulungkot at kahiya-hiya ang Pilipinas sa pinal na desisyon ng Bureau of Immigration (BI) na ipa-deport si Sr. Patricia Fox,"  Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes said on church-run Radyo Veritas.

Bastes, chairman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Mission, also said the government's treatment of the long-time missionary to the country is unacceptable.

"Hindi katanggap-tanggap ang pagtrato ng bansa sa misyonerong dayuhan na tumutulong sa mga katutubo at mahihirap," said Bastes, adding, "This is a very sad development ... talagang hindi ito mabuti. I am ashamed of the government."

Also, he said the deportation has confirmed Philippine bishops' suspicion that the Rodrigo Duterte administration is out to persecute people who dare to criticize his policies.

Sister Patricia has been in the Philippines for over 27 years, standing for and serving marginalized indigenous communities in the country.

"We know that Sister Fox is a very good missionary that she has lived in the Philippines for a longtime, especially for the lumads, the natives,  and we know that she sympathizes with and worked for the defense of the human rights of indigenous peoples (IPs)," he added.

According to Bastes, hundreds of IP families have fled their homes due to military harassment, with soldiers falsely tagging them as members of the communist New Peoples' Army.

But he said big mining firms close to Duterte are behind the harassment against the IPs, in a bid to grab their land, using the military as their instruments.

"This mining companies are urging the President to accuse this lumads as communists or being leftists because they have bad intentions of occupying their land."

Sister Fox is the first ever Catholic Church missionary to be slapped with government deportation order.

"It's a crime to deport someone who is doing good for our people," Bastes said, even as he assured Sr. Patricia that Philippine bishops, priests, and religious groups will fight for her rights.

Last Thursday, BI ordered the deportation of Sr. Fox on grounds that include participation in "political activities," almost two months after the Department of Justice (DOJ) granted a reprieve to the missionary.

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.

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. —LBG, GMA News