Karapatan decries the illegal arrest and detention of Sr. Patricia “Pat” Fox, NDS, a missionary of the international Roman Catholic congregation of women Sisters of Our Lady of Sion, from the Congregacion de Notre Dame de Sion (Congregation of Our Lady of Sion).
Sr. Pat, 71, is an Australian citizen who holds a missionary visa in the Philippines since the 1990’s and is conducting community service as part of her missionary work in the country. An advocate of genuine agrarian reform and human rights, Sr. Pat has joined activities of the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) and Pagkakaisa para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (PATRIA), including recent international fact finding and solidarity missions in Mindanao that probed the impact of the Duterte regime’s martial law and counterinsurgency program Oplan Kapayapaan on poor peasants in the island. Sr. Pat is also a consistent and untiring advocate of the rights of agricultural workers, including the farmworkers in Hacienda Luisita, that of indigenous peoples, including the Lumad, and the urban poor.