MANILA – Australian missionary Patricia Fox has decided to leave the country for now after the Bureau of Immigration (BI) downgraded her temporary visitor’s visa set to expire today.
The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), who was assisting Fox’s legal matters in the country, said that Fox intends to return to the country at the end of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term.
“Sr. Fox will leave the Philippines with a clear conscience that she has done nothing wrong and illegal during her 27 years of stay in the country,” the NUPL said in a statement.
“She intends to come back in the Philippines as soon as President [Rodrigo] Duterte is out of power and another government more receptive of dissent and who recognizes missionary and human rights work is in place,” the group added.
The NUPL also said that, even with her departure in the country, Sister Fox still intends to continue her missionary works “wherever she may be.”
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 Nov. 3.
Fox was apprehended on April 16 by BI operatives pursuant to a mission order issued by Commissioner Jaime Morente for violating the conditions of her stay in the country by engaging in political activities and anti-government demonstrations.
Fox has filed a petition on May 25 before the DOJ seeking for the reversal of BI’s leave order on May 17 forfeiting her missionary visa due to allegations of violating the conditions of her stay and gave her a temporary visitor’s visa lasting only 30 days.
The BI, in its order, has dismissed Fox’s arguments that they forfeited her visa without due process and that allegations that she engaged in political activities were not backed with solid evidence.
On June 18, the DOJ nullified the BI’s order to forfeit Fox’s missionary visa, noting that the missionary visa forfeiture was “without legal basis” and outside the BI’s power./PN
