Palace on BI’s order vs Fox: ‘It is harsh, but it is the law’ 

It is harsh, but it is the law.

This was the comment of Malacañang on the Bureau of Immigration’s (BI) decision to uphold its deportation order against Australian missionary nun Sister Patricia Fox.

“We respect the decision of the Bureau of Immigration. That’s the law. Dura lex sed lex (It is harsh, but it is the law),” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Wednesday in a message to reporters.

The BI reaffirmed its order to forfeit Fox’s missionary visa on Wednesday, noting that the decision is final and executory.

READ: BI tells Sister Fox: Leave PH by May 25 or face another deportation case

The order came a day before the BI’s 60-day deadline for Fox to leave the country.

President Rodrigo Duterte said last month that he had ordered the probe of the Australian nun for disorderly conduct and for violating the country’s sovereignty.

“I assure you, if you begin to malign, defame government in any of those rallies there, I will order your arrest,” Duterte said in a speech during the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) change-of-command ceremony.

READ: Duterte: ‘I ordered probe of Aussie nun’

Fox, who had been doing missionary work in the Philippines for the past 27 years, drew the government’s attention after joining the International Fact-Finding and Solidarity Mission in Mindanao in April to investigate reports of rights abuses against farmers and Lumad in the region.

The nun’s camp maintained that joining the mission is part of her solidarity and missionary work and she has never took part in activities that seek to undermine the government. /ee

READ: Sr. Patricia Fox: No regrets for 27 years in PH