DOJ will act on appeal of Sister Patricia Fox in 2019

Sister Patricia Fox files poses in front of the Bureau of Immigration in Manila on Sept. 3, 2018, after applying for a tourist visa so she could continue to stay in the Philippines. (File photo by MARIANNE BERMUDEZ / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice (DOJ) will take until next year to resolve the appeal of Australian missionary Sister Patricia Fox for the reversal of the deportation order issued by the Bureau of Immigration on her.

READ: Sister Fox urges DOJ to reverse BI’s deportation order

“The resolution of Sister Fox’s appeal from the deportation order issued against her will have to await next year,” DOJ spokesman Markk Perete said in a statement sent to reporters on Thursday.

Perete explained that the DOJ could not immediately tackle the petition because it had only recently received Fox’s memorandum.

In the meantime, it would focus on “equally important but more urgent petitions for review.”

Last July, the Bureau of Immigration revoked Fox’s missionary visa and ordered her deportation following a report of one of its intelligence officers that Fox had participated in protests and fact-finding missions here in the Philippines. /atm