LP extols Sister Fox

Australian nun Patricia Fox during her release from detention at the Bureau of Immigration (File photo by MARIANNE BERMUDEZ / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

“Sister Patricia Fox may be Australian, but she is more Filipino than many of those in power.”

This was what the Liberal Party (LP) has to say as it slammed the Bureau of Immigration’s (BI) action to deport the 71-year-old missionary nun.

LP vice president for external affairs Erin Tañada said that Fox is more human than that of the members of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), whom he described to be seemingly advancing the interests of the Chinese government.

“Sr. Patricia Fox has been engaged in human rights fact-finding mission in the Philippines for over two decades. She is now being ordered to leave the country,” Tañada said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Mas marunong siyang makipagkapwa-tao, lalo na sa mga aba at api, kaysa sa mga taga-PDP-Laban na mukhang inuuna pa ang interes ng Chinese government sa interes ng kababayang Pilipino,” he added.

(She knows how to be with the people, especially to the poor and powerless, than that of the members of PDP-Laban who seemed to be advancing further the interest of Chinese government than that of the Filipinos.)

Tañada was referring to the PDP-Laban’s hosting of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s book during the ruling party’s anniversary last February.

The BI on Wednesday ordered Fox to leave the country after it forfeited her missionary visa for “her involvement in partisan politics.”

BI commissioner Jaime Morente said the agency’s board of commissioners forfeited the Australian missionary’s visa on Monday after “she was found to have engaged in activities that are not allowed under the terms and conditions of her visa.” /jpv

READ: BI orders Sister Fox: Leave in 30 days