MANILA – Australian missionary Sister Patricia Fox said the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has no right to limit the scope of her missionary works in the country.
In a 26-page counter affidavit filed on Friday, Fox said the BI limiting her missionary works in the country will be a violation of the Constitution.
“With due respect, (BI intelligence officer Penelope) Gonzales conducted a sloppy investigation and intelligence work and made malicious, sweeping and erroneous assumption and conclusion and facts and law in stating that what I did was beyond the limits of my missionary and apostolate work,” Fox said.
The nun added that Gonzales has “no right to define or delimit what constitute the apostolate and missionary works of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion,” which is registered with the Security and Exchange Commission.
Fox also cited Section 5, Article 3 of the Bill of Rights, which states that “no law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
“This has been the consistent ruling of the Philippine Supreme Court since 1920 until the advent of the 1987 Constitution,” Fox said. “The provision was applicable to all, both foreigner and Filipino citizen alike.”
BI commissioner Jaime Morente, who heads the three-man panel who investigated Fox, said on Wednesday last week that Fox’s missionary visa has been cancelled for violating the Section 9 of the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940.
Fox, who has been helping peasants and indigenous peoples for 27 years, was arrested by the BI on April 16 pursuant to a mission order issued by Morente. She was released a day after./PN
