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Nun who lost Philippines deportation battle returns to Australia
MELBOURNE, Nov 4, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – An elderly Australian nun who lost a
long legal battle with Manila to stop her deportation attacked Philippine
President Rodrigo Duterte’s “reign of tyranny” as she returned home Sunday.
Sister Patricia Fox, who spent almost three decades working with
Philippine labourers, farmers and urban poor, was accused of illegally
engaging in political activism as Duterte’s government cracked down on
foreign critics on its soil.
The 71-year-old apparently angered the fiery president by joining a fact-
finding mission in April to investigate alleged abuses against farmers,
including killings and evictions by soldiers fighting guerrillas in the
southern Philippines.
Welcomed by supporters at Melbourne airport, Fox told reporters she was
happy to be home but had found it hard to leave. “At present, 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.”
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.
Immigration authorities last week refused to extend her tourist visa and
ordered the 71-year-old out by Saturday.
She decided to return to Australia rather than risk being forcibly
removed.
Church figures have previously criticised Duterte’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.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0840 hrs