Australian nun Patricia Fox during her release from detention at the Bureau of Immigration (Photo by MARIANNE BERMUDEZ / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Published: 5:54 p.m., April 18, 2018 | Updated: 7:15 p.m., April 18, 2018
President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said he was the one who ordered the Bureau of Immigration to investigate Australian nun Sister Patricia Fox for her “disorderly conduct,” which led to her temporary detention.
Duterte made this admission during his speech at the Change of Command Ceremony of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
“It was not the military who arrested the Catholic nun from Australia,” the seething President said. “It was upon my orders implemented by the Bureau of Immigration. And I take full responsibility, legal or otherwise, for this incident.”
On Monday afternoon, Immigration agents arrested Fox, a missionary who is a member of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion, at her home in Quezon City and took her to the Bureau of Immigration head office in Intramuros, Manila.
Only Filipino entitled to criticize him
The chief executive said he could only take criticisms from Filipinos but would not allow foreigners to attack him.
“Look, I’m addressing to the Filipino nation,” he said. “I can swallow, I can take all attacks from the Lumads, to the highest religious orders of all sorts, from my brother Moro, from the military, from everybody.”
“Ang hiningi ko lang, you’re a Filipino. You are entitled, really, to criticize,” he went on. “Freedom of expression is unlimited and it goes for everybody. But to otherwise undermine and treat the Philippines like a mattress to wipe with your feet, that is something [else].”
As a politician, he said he had been “enduring attacks” but said he would not let a foreigner insult him.
“Pero kung insultuhin ako, and in the cloak of being just a Catholic priest, and you are a foreigner, who are you?” he said.
“Ako politiko ako, but do not insult us every time that you open your mouth with your thought inside at hanggang tilaok mo,” he said.
He said meddling by foreigners in domestic affairs of the Philippines would be “a violation of sovereignty.”
“I am with the executive department. I am a worker of the department and I gave the orders. And the order of who goes in and who goes out, it is with me. Not in Congress, not in the Supreme Court. Ako. Ako ang magsabi being head, being there in that office in Pasig,” he said.
Right to deport ‘undesirable aliens’
Only the “good” people should be allowed entry to the Philippines, he said.
“Papasukin mo yan at mabait na tao. Huwag mong papasukin kasi walang hiya ang bunganga ng madreng iyan. You do not have the right to criticize us. But you can come here and enjoy all the sites,” he said.
“Pero habang akong nandiyan, do not insult my country. Because you come here and go, akala ninyo. We never did that to Australia. We never did that to European country,” he added.
The President said he had the right to deport “undesirable aliens.”
“You know, in our laws, the Philippine law provides that I can deport you or refuse you entry if you are an undesirable alien,” he said.
‘Why don’t you criticize your own government?’
The President slammed Fox for criticizing the Philippine government but failed to look at her own country.
“Ikaw, madre, why don’t you criticize your own government? The way you handled the refugees, hungry and dying, and you turn them back to the open sea,” he said.
“And now you’re getting rid of the natives there and refugees in an island. Bakit hindi ka magyakyak doon? You are too presumptuous about looking at the Philippines,” he added.
He said Australia had even worse human rights violations compared to the Philippines.
“May human rights violation kayo mas grabe. Eh buti dito kriminal ang pinapatay ko. Kayo? Men, women, and children seeking sanctuary. Under the heat of the sun and in the coldness of the night, you drove them back to where they came from and you know they were also being rejected from the country they were trying to be,” he said.
He advised Fox “correct the abuses within your organization.”
“Kayo marami kayong sakit ng ulo. Do not just pretend that just because you are a nun or a priest. Who, I said, who are you?” the President said.
“Your god is not my god. Remember that. Stick to your own religion and try to correct the abuses within your organization. To address homosexuality and malpractices and adulterous priests. Putang…” he said.
Imposing Western values on PH
The President hit back at foreigners for “trying to promote international or geographical governance” in the Philippines.
“Then you come in messing up with us, with this neoliberalism of yours. You’re trying to promote international or geographical governance. That’s the modern trend – the West imposing their values on us. Please do not do that. Go home and try to solve your own problem,” he said.
He also slammed the European countries, a vocal critic of his brutal war on drugs.
“European countries you can’t even handle the refugees. Son of… Kaya beginning today, I will decide who gets in and who gets out. You want to question that? You go to court and I will follow,” he said. “But until then, you don’t mess up with the sovereignty of this country. You treat it with disrespect, you come here, you stick, you try to defame government.”
He also warned the left-leaning groups against inviting foreigners who would come here to criticize the government.
“So Kayong mga left, do not ever ever try to invite. I will not allow them in this country. And if they decide to enter surreptitiously, they will be arrested,” he said.
“But if you come here just deliver about human rights in a proper way, pero kayong mga on the other side of the fence, kayong mga komunista, kayong mga left. Wag ninyo akong ano… I decide,” he said.
He said he he would order the arrest of those who would “tranple with our sovereignty.”
“You come here and insult us, you trample with our sovereignty. That will never happen. I assure you. If you begin to try to malign the government in any of those rallies there, I will order your arrest,” he said.
Fox, he said, was released because “was she was not caught in flagrante delicto.”
“Meaning to say she was not caught berating the government,” he said.
“We do not share the same god. Your gods, or god, is different from mine,” the President said. “You do not have any authority more than mine. My god has common sense, your god does not have it.” /atm