By Moira Encina
Eagle News Service
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has forfeited the missionary visa of Australian missionary Patricia Fox and ordered her to leave the country.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said this was after the BI’s board of commissioners (BOC), which he chairs, found her “to have engaged in activities that are not allowed under the terms and conditions of her visa.”
Associate Commissioners J. Tobias Javier and Aimee Torrefranca -Neri are members of the board.
Fox’s visa, under Sec. 9 (g) of the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940, only granted her the privilege to engage in missionary work, the BI said.
It was set to expire on Sept. 5.
“We direct Fox to leave the Philippines within 30 days from receipt of this order,” the board said.
It also ordered the deactivation of her alien certificate of registration.
Despite the forfeiture of her visa, Atty. Antonette Bucasas- Mangrobang, BI spokesperson, said that Fox may still enter and leave the country as a tourist.
Mangrobang said a deportation case against Fox is still pending, since she has yet to submit her counter-affidavit on the case.
“It is only after the parties have been heard, will the case be submitted to the Board of Commissioners for their deliberation on whether or not she will be deported and barred from entering the country in the future,” Mangrobang said.
Fox was arrested by immigration agents on April 17 but was released a day later.
