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Sister Patricia Fox slams

PH ‘reign of tyranny’
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:25 AM November 05, 2018

MELBOURNE — An Australian nun who lost a long legal battle with Manila to
stop her deportation attacked President Rodrigo Duterte’s “reign of tyranny” as
she returned home on Sunday.

Sister Patricia Fox, 71, who spent almost three decades working with Philippine
laborers, farmers and urban poor, was accused of illegally engaging in political
activism as the President’s administration cracked down on foreign critics on its
soil.

Fox apparently angered the President by joining a fact-finding mission in April

to investigate alleged abuses against farmers, including killings and evictions by
soldiers fighting guerrillas in Mindanao.

Welcomed by supporters at Melbourne Airport, Fox told reporters she was happy
to be home but had found it hard to leave the Philippines.

‘Reign of tyranny’

“At present, in the Philippines, the human rights abuses are just increasing and it
is a reign of tyranny at present,” Fox said.

“There has been a culture of impunity for a long time and it is getting worse,”
she said.

Sought for comment, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo denied Fox’s

claim of a reign of tyranny in the Philippines.

“There is only a reign of strict enforcement of laws. The reign of terror is in the
minds of those who violate the laws because they are terrified that the law is
running after them,” Panelo said.

Fox had been arrested briefly on charges of violating her visa’s terms against
activism in the Philippines and the slow turning wheels of the country’s
bureaucracy began moving to strip her of her papers.
Australian Roman Catholic nun Sister Patricia Fox reaches out to bid goodbye to
supporters as she is escorted to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for her
flight to Australia Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Manila, Philippines. Sister Fox
decided to leave after 27 years in the country after the Immigration Bureau
denied her application for the extension of her visa. Sr. Fox called on Filipinos to
unite and fight human rights abuses ahead of her forced departure from the
country. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Immigration authorities downgraded her missionary visa to tourist visa.

Last week, they refused to extend her visa and ordered her out by Saturday.

Fox decided to return to Australia rather than risk being forcibly removed.

She left the Philippines on Saturday night.

Church figures have previously criticized the President’s policies, particularly his
signature war on drugs that has left almost 5,000 people dead since he took
office in 2016.

Human rights groups charge that the actual death toll is about five times that
total.

Speak up, bring about change

At a farewell news conference in a Catholic school in Manila on Friday, Fox

called on Filipinos to speak up and help the marginalized fight to gain land,
houses and jobs.

“The big challenge now is not to lose hope, to know that if we all move together,
we can bring about change,” Fox said.

“Pope Francis said that if you’re a Christian and there’s massive human rights
violations . . . you should take action, make noise. Where the oppressed are, the
church people should be there, not only always talking but with them and
hopefully more vocal,” she said.

Fox told The Associated Press (AP) by phone that the President’s war on drugs
was “horribly barbaric” and she vowed to return to the Philippines if allowed to
resume her 27 years of missionary work for the poor.

“I know a lot of mothers, wives who have lost someone. You have no right to
take a life just like that without justice,” Fox said.

Dozens of activists, laborers, priests, nuns and tribal people, some in tears,
thanked Fox by celebrating Mass in her honor before sending her off.

Overnight rock star

A lawyers’ group backing Fox, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, said
that by persecuting a frail and low-key missionary, the President had turned her
into an “overnight rock star.”

Known for being soft-spoken, Fox is a coordinator of the Congregation of Our

Lady of Sion, a Roman Catholic order of nuns, and has worked for the poor in
the Philippines.

She promotes human rights and the welfare of workers, farmers and ethnic
groups and has spoken against Mr. Duterte and his administration, which has
also been criticized for stifling dissent.
In Melbourne, Fox recalled that after she had spoken publicly in support for
Coca-Cola workers seeking benefits in the Philippines, their picket was “broken
up brutally, 10 of them were arrested and were five days in jail and not charged.”

“And so they were having a press conference and I did say to them, when they
wanted me to speak, that the teachings of the Catholic Church clearly say you
have a right to assembly, you have a right to unionize, you have a right to regular
work. Now that, in the deportation order, was antigovernment. One of the
commentators said that now the social teachings of the Catholic Church are
antigovernment,” she said.

The Bureau of Immigration said Fox violated her missionary visa by venturing
far beyond her community in Quezon City and interfered in domestic politics by
joining protests and news conferences that tackled “political and human rights
issues against the government.”

‘Political persecution’

Fox’s lawyers said she joined the marginalized as part of her missionary work
and called the Duterte administration’s actions “political persecution.”

They expressed fears that the move to evict Fox could undermine the crucial
civic and religious work of foreign missionaries in the country.

Aside from Fox, the Duterte administration has separately blocked a critical
Italian politician, Giacomo Filibeck, and another Australian, Gill Hale
Boehringer, from entering the Philippines this year.

“The law is clear: The entry and admission of an alien is a matter of privilege,
and not a right,” Dana Sandoval, a spokesperson for the immigration bureau, said
on Saturday. —Reports from AFP, AP and Julie M. Aurelio