Sister Pat is the leader of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion in the Philippines and has worked there since 1991. She once lived and worked in Erskineville.
The Bureau of Immigration has retained her passport while she is further investigated for alleged “illegal political activity”. Sister Pat denied party-political activity, but declared that it is her duty to stand beside the poor and oppressed.
President Rodrigo Duterte then claimed at a media conference on April 18 that he personally gave the order for Sister Pat to be deported.
On April 15, Italian citizen Giacomo Filibeck, Deputy Secretary General of the Party of European Socialists in the European Parliament, was deported on arrival at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
On April 13, President Duterte warned International Criminal Court Prosecutor Ms Fatou Bensouda that she is barred from entering the country and would be arrested.
On February 21, 2018, the Department of Justice petitioned the National Capital Regional Trial Court to declare Ms Victoria Tauli-Corpuz a “terrorist”. Ms Tauli-Corpuz is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
On February 20, five internationals taking part in an International Solidarity Mission in South Cotobato were briefly detained and threated with deportation. Two missionaries in that group still face this threat.
Sister Pat took part in a similar fact-finding and solidarity mission in Mindanao, led by farmer organisations, on April 6-9, 2018. That was the immediate trigger for the deportation threat, which she is appealing.
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