President Rodrigo Duterte admitted he is behind the controversial arrest of Australian nun Sister Patricia Fox, but clarified that his order was not to apprehend but to investigate the missionary nun.
“It was upon my orders implemented by the Bureau of Immigration and I take full responsibility, legal or otherwise, for this incident,” he said during the Change-of-Command ceremony of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
“I ordered her to be investigated, not deported at once, not arrested, but invite her to an investigation for a disorderly conduct,” he added.
The president alleged that the nun engages in movements against the government.
He also berated the nun for criticizing his administration and told her to call out the “human rights violations” in her home country, Australia, before condemning the alleged rights violation in the Philippines.
“You, nun, why don’t you criticize your own government? The way you handled the refugees, hungry and dying, and you turn them back to the open sea. And now you’re getting rid of the natives there, and refugees in an island,” Duterte said.
“You have more severe human rights violations. Here I kill criminals. How about you? Men, women, and children seeking sanctuary. Under the heat of the sun and in the coldness of the night, you drove them back to where they came from and you know they were also being rejected from the country which they were trying to be,” he added.
Duterte said Fox’s release doesn’t mean she didn’t violate any law but because “she was not caught in flagrante delicto, meaning to say she was not caught berating the government.”
Moreover, Duterte said he has every right to decide who enters and leaves the country.
“Beginning today, I will decide who gets in and who gets out. You want to question that? You go to Court and I will follow. But until then, you don’t mess up with the sovereignty of this country,” he said.
(DAILY NEWS ROUND UP FOR 04/ 19 /18)