Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Friday directed the Bureau of Immigration to comment on the petition filed by Australian missionary Sister Patricia Fox seeking a reversal of the April ruling downgrading her Missionary Visa to a Temporary Tourist Visa.
Guevarra gave the bureau 10 days to submit its comment, while Sister Fox has five days to submit a reply to the comment. Both deadlines are non-extendible, he said.
The Department of Justice also clarified that the 30-day deadline by the BI for Fox to leave the country was not May 25 but June 18.
Guevarra explains that the running of the 30-day period given by the BI stopped when Sister Fox filed her motion for reconsideration before the BI on the fifth day of the 30-day period.
“Upon the denial of the said Motion for Reconsideration, petitioner had a remaining period of 25 days from May 24, 2018, the date when she was served a copy of the Order denying her motion for reconsideration or until June 18, 2018 within which to leave the country,” Guevarra said in his order released hours after Fox filed her petition for review.
The Aussie nun had asked the DoJ to overturn the BI decision downgrading her Missionary visa to a Temporary Visitor’s Visa and ordering her to leave the country within 30 days.
In a 24-page petition for review, Fox through lawyer Katherine Panguban sought for a reversal of the immigration ruling, saying she was denied her right to due process and the agency violated its own rules when she was not given a copy of the petition for the cancellation of her visa or given the opportunity to respond to the allegations against her.
Fox lamented that the supposed basis for the cancellation of her visa was “purely speculative.”
Panguban cited, for example, the photograph where Fox was holding a placard stating “Free all political prisoners” did not indicate the source, place and context which it was taken which is required by the rules on evidence.
“Technically, the statements contained in such report are mere allegations of wrong doing and cannot be made a basis for the said cancellation and downgrading,” Fox said in her petition.
The petition also cited the Supreme Court case Domingo v. Scheer as they pointed out that even foreign nationals sojourning in the Philippines enjoys the right to freedom of expression and to peaceably assemble.
“When the Petitioner joins rallies and fact finding missions and similar activities, she is not violating the law. She is merely exercising her right, and she can do so whether the same is part of her missionary work or not, since such right is guaranteed and protected by the Constitution. She is afforded,” the petition stated.
The camp of Fox also argued that the definition of “missionary” and “apostolate” cited by the BI Intelligence was narrow.