Sister Patricia Fox set to leave Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — After nearly six months of battling government efforts to have her deported, Australian nun and human rights advocate Patricia Anne Fox has finally decided to leave the country on Saturday.

Fox said yesterday she had no choice but to leave the Philippines – her home for the last 27 years – after the Bureau of Immigration (BI) denied the extension of her temporary visitor’s visa that is set to expire on Nov. 3.

“I am sad and I will go… I don’t believe that they have any grounds to the decision” to downgrade her missionary visa.

Her appeal on her deportation case is still pending before the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Fox was at the BI yesterday hoping to secure an extension for her temporary visa, but the BI denied her request. “I can’t do much now… They have an intelligence agent at the airport to make sure that I am gone by the third (of November). Otherwise, deportation proceedings for overstaying if I don’t go by the third,” she said.

When her missionary visa expired last Sept. 5, BI issued her a temporary visitor’s visa valid for 59 days or until Nov. 3.

She believes a better option for her is to voluntarily leave the country on Saturday, so that she would not be placed in the Immigration blacklist and would still be able to return.

She said she could take a couple of months’ vacation in Australia and return early next year. “I will look at the situation. It depends on the deportation case. I could have a couple of months, if I could come back I will come back,” she said.

There is “nothing I can do about the visa. I’m really hoping that DOJ Secretary (Menardo) Guevarra would really side (with me) in the deportation case. If they really look at the arguments because it is about freedom of expression, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, (these are) the basic freedom for everybody under the Constitution and international law,” Fox, the provincial superior of the Sister of Our Lady of Sion, said.

The missionary said she was hoping the “DOJ would still look at the legal arguments because the BI has never looked at the legal arguments against my deportation.” She said she understands it’s the government’s prerogative to give her a visa. “Of course you can’t force a country to give you a visa,” she maintained.

She also expressed her gratitude to those who have supported her.

Fox was arrested by the BI last April 16 for allegedly engaging in partisan politics. The “evidence” against her included photos showing her in the company of protesting farmers, prisoners and indigenous people.

Lawyers of Fox said in a statement that she might return after the end of President Duterte’s term, especially if a new administration that is more receptive to dissent, missionary work and human rights takes over.