Sister Patricia Fox reacts while inside her house in QC upon learning of the news that DOJ has reversed BI’s ruling that downgraded her missionary visa to a tourist visa on Monday, June 18,2018. PDI PHOTO BY JAM STA. ROSA
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said he was only following the law and President Duterte’s instruction when he nullified the Bureau of Immigration order forfeiting the missionary visa of Australian missionary nun Sister Patricia Fox.
The President has criticized Fox for participating in protest rallies against the government.
After an investigation, the bureau forfeited Fox’s visa and ordered her to leave the country within 30 days.
Fox took the case to the Department of Justice, which reversed the bureau’s findings.
“Forfeiture has no legal framework in the law,” Guevarra said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
“You cannot find it there [immigration law] or in the implementing rules and regulations… Forfeiture is something [that is] nonexistent as far as the law is concerned,” he added.—TETCH TORRES-TUPAS