CLARK FREEPORT — The Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) condemned yesterday the forfeiture of Sr. Patricia Fox’s missionary visa as “hasty, baseless, unjust.”
The RMP – a national organization of women and men in religious orders, priests and laymen – used to be headed by Fox, an Australian, as national coordinator for the Philippines.
“Sr. Pat has been here in our country for 27 years doing missionary work with the rural poor. She has seen the miserable conditions of Filipino farmers, fisherfolk and indigenous people. Called by her faith, Sr. Pat supported the plight of the rural poor for genuine agrarian reform,” Sr. Elen Belardo, RMP national coordinator, said in a statement.
She lamented the statement of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente that Fox’s alleged involvement in partisan political activities as basis of their decision.
The Bureau of Immigration also told Fox to leave the country within 30 days. “This decision is hasty, baseless and unjust.
As a rural missionary, she is merely extending her solidarity with the Filipino rural poor and fulfilling servant leadership through collective witnessing and prophetic action,” Belardo said.
The RMP said that “under the Duterte regime, rural sectors, activists, and agrarian reform advocates have come under increasing attack” and that “recent attacks against Church people are part of the Duterte regime’s effort to terrorize and silence those who are speaking up against the worsening state of human rights and anti-people policies of the government and to suppress the growing dissent of the Filipino people.”
“We rebuke this attack against Sr. Pat and against her Christian missionary commitment. We enjoin the Church people and other sectors to stand with Sr. Pat in her plight against injustice. Let us all raise our voices and stand up for our Christian solidarity with the poor,” Belardo also said.
