71 Pinoy deportees arrive at Clark

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — While United States military personnel bid their Filipino counterparts in Balikatan 03-01 goodbye, 71 Filipinos deported from the US were welcomed by their relatives at a nearby airport here.

The deportees, aboard a chartered North American Airways Boeing 757 flight, arrived at about 10:30 a.m. as closing ceremonies for the Balikatan 03-01 were being held nearby at a hangar of the Philippine Air Force (PAF).

A total of 271 Filipinos have been deported in the past 11 months, said Elmer Cato, consular office director of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Central Luzon.

The 71 deportees are the fourth batch of Filipinos flown back to the Philippines on board chartered flights, Cato said. Sixty-three Filipinos were deported in June last year, then 84 more in December. Last February, a third batch of 53 deportees arrived here on board a chartered flight.