Dutch activist deported

MANILA, Philippines - A Dutch activist, who was photographed making a police officer cry during a rally against President Aquino outside the House of Representatives last month, was deported yesterday.

“If given a chance, I would like to come back to the Philippines to join more human rights rallies,” Thomas Alexander van Beersum, 21, told The Star prior to his departure.

On Tuesday, Van Beersum was stopped from boarding a flight home to the Netherlands at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for visa violations.

A summary deportation order was issued against him on Aug.1 by the Bureau of Immigration (BI). The Dutchman was on the BI’s blacklist and banned from entering the Philippines again.

After his deportation papers were processed, BI NAIA intelligence chief Wilson Soluren said Van Beersum was finally allowed to go home.