(UPDATED), 1st UPDATE. Philippine Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque has admitted that detaining 71-year-old Australian nun, Sr. Patricia Fox, was a mistake and said that “apologies are in order.”
Relish this moment, because apologies from this government are hard to come by.
Roque made the statement earlier today during an interview with GMA News.
“There is a law [that states] that foreigners shouldn’t interfere with our politics… the only difference is, there seems to be a mistake in the case of Sister Fox,” Roque said in Filipino. “Perhaps apologies are in order.”
Fox was released by the Bureau of Immigration yesterday after she submitted her passport and was able to prove that her missionary visa is valid until September.
She was arrested at the Quezon City convent where she lives on Monday for allegedly participating in political activities.
While talking to reporters yesterday, Fox admitted that she has been joining human rights protests but said she does not consider them political.
“As a [member of the clergy], I’ve been joining pro-human rights rallies for the farmers for their land rights, to release political prisoners,” she said. “If you call it political, I call it part of our duty as the religious to support and stand for the poor.”
Fox has been living in the Philippines for 27 years.
Roque’s apology, however, does not extend to activist Giacomo Filibeck, who was deported on Sunday upon his arrival at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
In October, Filibeck’s group, the Party of European Socialists, had called for an investigation into the alleged extrajudicial killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.
He traveled to the Philippines to attend a congress organized by Akbayan, a democratic socialist party-list that has been critical of Duterte.
Roque maintained that the government was not in the wrong when it barred Filibeck from entering the country.
“He was going here to participate in a political convention, which the law prohibits. So he has no right to enter and we have the power to refuse foreigners entry to our territory,” he said.
Despite Roque’s admission that Fox’s arrest was a mistake, Duterte still had harsh words for the nun.
During a speech at the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ change of command today, the president said he takes full responsibility for Fox’s arrest and said that he was the one who ordered the investigation on her.
“…and I take full responsibility, legal or otherwise, for this incident. I ordered her to be investigated. Not deported at once, not arrested, but to invite her to an investigation for a disorderly conduct,” Duterte said. “You know, in our laws, the Philippine laws provide that I can deport you or refuse you entry if you are an undesirable alien.”
He then criticized the nun for being out of line when commenting on the country’s affairs.
“…don’t let her enter because she has a foul mouth, that nun. You do not have the right to criticize us,” he said in Filipino.
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