Australian missionary appeals order to leave before DOJ

May 25, 2018

Australian missionary Sister Patricia Fox has asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to reverse the decision of the Bureau of Immigration downgrading her missionary visa to a temporary visitor’s visa and ordering her to leave the country within 30 days.

Fox's lawyer, Katherine Panguban, said the missionary was denied her right to due process. Fox was not given a copy of the petition for the cancellation of her visa or given the opportunity to respond to the allegations against her.

Fox said the supposed basis for the cancellation of her visa was “purely speculative.”

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra gave the Bureau of Immigration 10 days to answer Fox's petition. Guevara said the bureau's 30-day period given to Fox before she is sent home was cut short when she filed a motion for reconsideration.

Panguban said the photograph where Fox was holding a placard stating “Free all political prisoners” did not indicate the source, place and context which it was taken which is required by rules on evidence.

“Petitioner has been faithfully accomplishing her role as missionary, spreading the faith not only by "teaching religion," but by immersing herself with the poor. Her presence in the Philippines is the truest meaning of what it means to be a missionary, to be with the poor, to listen to their anguish,” the petitioner said.

Fox, a member of the Sisters of our Lady of Sion, arrived in the country in 1990 as a missionary. DMS