Palace: Sister Fox not yet off the hook despite winning appeal

MANILA, Philippines — The bid of the government make Sister Patricia Fox leave the country is not yet over.

Malacañang stressed this point Tuesday as the Australian nun could still be deported despite the decision of the Department of Justice to reverse the Bureau of Immigration’s revocation of her missionary visa.

“She’s not yet off the hook,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a press briefing in Cotabato.

Roque stressed that Fox could still be deported should the deportation proceedings find out if the 71-year-old nun indeed participated in political activities, which is prohibited by an order of the Immigration.

“The DOJ voided the ruling of the BI, which nullified her missionary visa because it has no power to do so. But the deportation proceedings against her are still ongoing,” Roque said.

READ: DOJ allows Sister Fox to stay in the country for now

In his decision Monday, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said that the forfeiture of Fox’s visa by the Immigration has no legal basis.

“This office cannot sanction BI’s resort to a visa forfeiture procedure and [the bureau’s] orders against [Fox] which result therefrom. To hold otherwise will legitimize [BI’s] assertion of a power that does not exist in our laws,” Guevarra said. 

The Immigration said it would reinstate the missionary visa of Fox in compliance with the DOJ’s order.

Guevarra, however, ordered the BI, an attached agency of the DOJ, to determine whether the charge and the evidence against Fox can make out a case for visa cancelation, a procedure allowed by the law.

The Immigration was directed to hear the visa cancelation case along with the deportation case against the Australian nun, which is already pending with the bureau. 

Fox may continue to perform her duties as a missionary in the country until a final resolution on the visa cancelation and/or deportation proceedings is reached. 

The lay missionary has been on the receiving end of President Rodrigo Duterte’s attacks. He has admitted that he personally ordered the BI to investigate the Melbourne native and has accused her of having a “shameful mouth.”

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