Immigration denies Fox's plea for missionary visa renewal

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration has denied Australian missionary Patricia Fox’s plea to extend her missionary visa.

Immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval confirmed this in a message to Philstar.com on Sunday.

According to Sandoval, Fox was “ordered to file for downgrading to revert her status to a temporary visitor’s visa.”

A visitor’s visa has a 59-day stay period, said Sandoval. For the Australian missionary, it will start from the date of her missionary visa’s expiry, which was last September 5.

READ: Guevarra: Fox may apply for tourist visa

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, meanwhile, said the denial of Fox's plea to renew her missionary visa is "[consistent] with its order of deportation."

The justice chief, however, stressed that Fox's appeal against the Immigration's deportation order remains pending before the DOJ.

BI: Fox needs to apply for visa downgrade

Sandoval also clarified that Fox has to file for an application for a temporary visitor visa, following procedure for those with expired immigrant or non-immigrant visas.

On August 20, Fox, through her lawyer Jobert Pahilga, asked the Immigration to renew her missionary visa. Pahilga stressed that Fox’s visa renewal should be taken as a separate matter from her ongoing deportation case.

But the Immigration, on August 29, upheld its deportation against Fox. According to the bureau, Fox failed to present new matters in her appeal that would warrant a reversal of the ruling.

The immigration bureau said that Fox was ordered deported due to her participation in rallies, and not due to President Rodrigo Duterte’s pronouncements against her.

The Australian missionary has already elevated her case to the Department of Justice.

She asked the Justice department not to prejudge her case, as what the Immigration did.

Fox’s legal team said they are willing to exhaust all legal remedies—even seeking the Supreme Court—to overturn the deportation order.

Duterte has admitted to ordering an investigation into Fox. In his later speeches, the president would repeatedly lash out against the elderly nun for having a “shameful mouth.”

Fox has spent the last 27 years in the country, extending aid to indigenous peoples, land reform advocates and people behind bars.