Fil-Am activist ordered to leave Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino-American Chantal Anicoche, a suspected activist found near the site of a firefight between soldiers and communist rebels in Occidental Mindoro last month, left the country on Friday, the Bureau of Immigration said.

BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval said the Philippine Army requested the 24-year-old Anicoche to leave the country. 

“She was not deported. She was ordered to leave. The request for her to leave came from the Philippine Army,” Sandoval said, adding that Anicoche paid for her own plane fare.

Anicoche was discharged from a military hospital at Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal on Thursday.

Col. Michael Aquino, 2nd Infantry Division spokesman and Public Affairs Office chief, said Consul General Brendain Mullarkey and other US embassy officials frequently visited Anicoche during her almost month-long stay at the hospital.

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Commission on Human Rights and Integrated Bar of the Philippines were also allowed to see her, Aquino added.

Soldiers found Anicoche hiding in a hole in Barangay Cabacao in Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro on Jan. 1. Anicoche was reportedly conducting research in the village when the clash with guerillas broke out.