Philippines | Immigration orders Australian nun deported and blacklisted

Australian Roman Catholic nun Patricia Fox (center) 

The Philippine immigration bureau has ordered the deportation of an Australian nun who has angered the president by joining anti-government rallies but her lawyers call the move “persecution” and say they’ll appeal.

The Bureau of Immigration order issued yesterday also called for the inclusion of Sister Patricia Anne Fox in the agency’s blacklist which would prohibit her from returning to the country. It said Fox violated the terms of her missionary visa.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra says Fox’s deportation “is stayed pending appeal.”

President Rodrigo Duterte has been hypersensitive to criticism, especially by foreigners, who he says have no right to meddle in domestic affairs. His bloody anti-drug crackdown has left thousands of suspects dead and alarmed human rights groups and Western governments.

Fox, a 71 year-old superior of the Notre Dame de Sion in the Philippines, a congregation of Catholic nuns, was detained for a day in April after Duterte ordered her investigation for “disorderly conduct”.

In a one-page order, immigration bureau head Jaime Morente asked Fox to leave the Philippines after “she was found to have engaged in activities that are not allowed under the terms and conditions of her visa.”

The Australian nun, who has been in the country for more than 27 years, has 30 days to exit the Philippines after receipt of the order.

Her renewable missionary visa, which was due to expire in September 2018, was cancelled in mid April, but an immigration spokeswoman said she can still return to the mainly Catholic Southeast Asian country as a tourist, not as a missionary. MDT/Agencies