“We received the order of BI sent to our office while I’m out. BI ordered Sister Fox’s deportation and her inclusion in the watchlist,” Fox’s lawyer Sol Taule told the Businessmirror in a text message.
Earlier, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra confirmed that the BI would be coming out with a resolution on Fox’s deportation case.
Taule said he has yet to see the copy of the BI’s decision but a motion for reconsideration will be filed soon.
The 71-year-old missionary is being accused of violating the terms and conditions of her visa when she participated in rallies, press conferences, and fact-finding missions.
Fox’s camp has been insisted that the nun’s participation in dialogues with the farmers, indigenous people, and the poor is part of her religious work.
Earlier, the Department of Justice (DOJ) nullified the order issued by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) last April 25 which forfeited Fox’s missionary visa of and compelled her to leave the country within 30 days.
Gueverra stressed that while the BI has powers to regulate the entry and stay of aliens in the country, it has not authority to forfeit a person’s visa.
While the resolution declares the missionary visa granted to Fox as still valid and subsisting, it nevertheless treats the case against her as one for visa cancellation, which according to Gueverra, is among those allowed by law and the rules.
Thus, Gueverra directed the BI to ascertain whether the charge and the evidence against Fox make out a case for visa cancellation, for which specific grounds are stated in the law.
“The BI treated this as a case for visa forfeiture instead of one for visa cancellation. As a result, the Bureau has yet to decide whether the supposed actions of Fox do indeed justify the cancellation of her visa. It would therefore be premature for us at the DOJ to decide that matter now,” the DOJ said.
Thus, the DOJ referred back to the BI the case for proper disposition.
The DOJ secretary also directed the BI to hear the visa cancellation case along with the deportation case against Fox which is pending with the bureau.
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