Yesterday, the Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced that it denied Australian nun Patricia Fox’s request to extend her missionary visa. However, the fight is not over for Fox’s camp, who said they plan to appeal this decision.
“The BI has ruled that Fox violated the conditions of her stay in the country and is considered undesirable, hence a deportation order was issued against her,” BI spokesperson Dana Krizia Sandoval said in a statement released yesterday, as reported by The Philippine Star.
Fox has lived in the Philippines as a missionary for 27 years. However, the BI’s order approved on Sept. 13 states that an agreement between the bureau and the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines only allows foreign missionaries to stay for 10 years, ABS-CBN News reported.
Fox’s missionary visa expired on Sept. 5 but the BI has been trying to get her to leave the country even before that.
It’s been a long and arduous five months for Fox who in April was arrested by the BI for allegedly participating in partisan political activities, something foreigners living in the Philippines are not allowed to do. She was detained at the BI office in Manila for almost 24 hours.
Just a few days after her arrest, Duterte admitted that he himself ordered the investigation on Fox.
The BI tried to forfeit Fox’s visa and ordered that she be deported by May but she remained in the country after the Department of Justice (DOJ) voided the order.
Jobert Pahilga, a lawyer that represents Fox told GMA News yesterday that they plan to appeal the BI’s latest decision to deny an extension of the nun’s missionary visa on or before tomorrow.
