Fox files plea for visa renewal

MANILA, Philippines — Sister Patricia Fox on Monday asked the Bureau of Immigration to renew her visa that would expire on September 5.

Fox’s lawyer, Jobert Pahilga, personally filed the pleading before the office of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente.

According to the statement released by Unyon ng Mangagawa sa Agrikultura, Fox expressed hope that the Central Receiving Unit of Immigration would accept her petition even with a deportation order against her.

The CRU also has the mandate to transmit the plea to the Board of Commissioners for their consideration, so Fox might be exhaust all remedies to appeal her case.

“It would be good enough if the Board of Commissioners renews her visa so that she could continue her missionary work among the deprived and the oppressed which she most cherishes,” the statement reads.

Fox spent the last 27 years in the Philippines, helping humanitarian causes and extending aid to land reform advocates, indigenous peoples and those behind bars.

Deportation case

The Immigration ordered Fox's deportation on July 19, after its board of commissioners found the elderly nun had violated the “limitations and conditions of Commonwealth Act 613, Section 9 (g) missionary visa and undesirable under Article 2711, Section 69.”

The Immigration bureau added that “[t]o allow respondent Fox to participate rallies or activities would open the floodgates for other aliens unbridled right to criticize the government by joining rallies to the detriment of public peace and order.”

Lawyer Jobert Pahilga, submits on behalf of Sister Patrica Fox, petition to renew her visa at office of BI Commissioner Jaime Morente Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura/released

President Rodrigo Duterte has admitted to ordering an investigation into Fox. In his later speeches, the chief executive lashed out at the elderly nun and said that she has a “shameful mouth.”

In its resolution that ordered Fox’s deportation, the Immigration said it has “taken judicial notice” that Duterte branded the nun as an “undesirable alien by joining political rallies.”

But Fox countered this in her appeal and said that the bureau had “clearly... already prejudged the case and based its decision on the public pronouncement of the president for which reason it swallowed hook, line and sinker so to speak.”

“With due respect, that is wrong,” her motion for reconsideration filed last July 23 reads.

The bureau, however, stressed that its board of commissioners gave more weight to Fox’s alleged engagement in “partisan politics” in ordering her deportation.