The expatriates were welcomed at the military air base by President Arroyo, who offered them livelihood and job assistance if they decide to stay in the country. Mrs. Arroyo was accompanied by other top government officials in meeting the returning Filipinos.

President Arroyo even offered to carry one-month-old Rowena Alvarado, one of three minors who were on board the flight to allow the infant’s mother, Rosalie, to partake of her lunch prepared by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

Yesterday’s arrival comprised the first batch of Filipinos evacuated by the government from Timor, one of the world’s tiniest, poorest and youngest countries.

About 200 Filipinos are working in Timor Leste as engineers, non-government organization volunteers, and Christian missionaries. Those left behind have decided to stay to continue their work despite recent chaos in the fledgling country.

The workers were evacuated due to increasing violence in Dili brought about by clan wars and hunger.

The plane — from PAF’s 220th Airlift Wing, took off from Mactan last Friday piloted by Lt. Col. Romeo Dela Cruz and Maj. Jonathan Caballes for the five-and-a-half hour flight to Darwin, Australia en route to Dili.

Those airlifted from Dili included three children, women and ailing people.

The Department of Foreign Affairs issued an advisory Friday urging Filipinos not to travel to Timor Leste now "due to the unstable security situation there."

The travel advisory was a day after a Philippines police officer, Chief Insp. Edgar Layon, was wounded in Dili when soldiers opened fire on unarmed policemen, killing nine people and wounding 27 others, Philippines and UN officials said.

OWWA head Marianito Roque said the agency will assist the repatriated return to their respective provinces.

Upon the instructions of President Arroyo, the OWWA will also offer livelihood assistance and training scholarships to the evacuees to help them find stable jobs in the country.

The President also commended the plane’s crew of four officers and six enlisted men for bringing their countrymen home safely. Aside from Dela Cruz and Caballes, military plane’s crew were Captains Kim Agatep and Rowena Ayudan (co-pilots).

Timor residents  loot warehouse

DILI (AFP) — Hundreds of people smashed their way into the government rice warehouse Sunday in the capital of East Timor, saying they were running out of food as violence in the streets edged the nation toward chaos.

A gang of locals smashed the padlocks on the building, threw open the doors and made off with what they could, carrying away huge sacks of rice on their backs and on scooters.

Tempers are fraying as one of the world’s poorest and tiniest countries has descended into chaos in the past week, with gangs clashing in the streets using machetes, slingshots and bows and arrows.

International troops and police from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal have been sent in to quell the violence that has killed at least 15 people.

A contingent of Australian soldiers escorted Timorese Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta to the rice warehouse to address the crowd.

"I know you are hungry," he said, promising that the rice would be fairly distributed to all, including women and children.

Many in the crowd cheered and shouted "Peace! Peace!" when he appeared.

Mobs tore through parts of Dili for a second day on Sunday, burning down houses and torching businesses. Ethnic rivals from the east and west of the tiny country have fought pitched battles in the streets.

The trouble began after nearly half of East Timor’s 1,400 soldiers were sacked after they went on strike to protest allaged discrimination in the army.

Timorese pray for end to violence during Sunday mass

DILI (AFP) — Church bells tolled across Dili Sunday as the city’s frightened inhabitants prayed for an end to the violence that has left East Timor close to civil war.

It was standing room only for the sunrise service at the church of Saint Antonio Motael on Dili Harbour, where a a pall of smoke from nearby homes burned by ethnic gangs overnight marred an otherwise picture postcard view.

Sleeping mats, foam matresses and boxes piled with possessions covered the church’s porch, testament to the fact that chruch buildings are viewed as sanctuaries as well as a places of worship in the deeply Catholic nation.

Hundreds of people fled to the church Saturday to escape fighting between rival gangs, piling possessions into their cars and abandoning their homes.

Bleary-eyed after a restless night, sombre worshippers packed the pews and gathered around a tannoy in the church grounds to hear the sermon in Portuguese.

Many wept as the hymns reverberated around the white colonialera building, receiving hugs, hankshakes or simply a comforting pat on the shoulder from their neighbors.

Father Aniceto Maia condemned the rivalry between clans from the tiny nation’s eastern and western provinces that led to the recent troubles and told his parisioners that violence was not the way to solve their differences.

PAF plane evacuates  dozens of Filipinos  from East Timor

MANILA (AP) -- A Philippine air force C-130 plane on Sunday evacuated more than 60 Filipinos from East Timor’s violence-wracked capital, officials said.

Those airlifted from Dili included children, women and ailing people. They were set to arrive Sunday at Manila’s Villamor Air Base, according to foreign affairs department spokesman Gilbert Asuque and the Philippine air force.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has also issued an advisory urging Filipinos not to travel to East Timor now "due to the unstable security situation there," he said.

The travel advisory was issued Friday, a day after a Philippine police officer, Chief Inspector Edgar Layon, was wounded in Dili when East Timorese soldiers opened fire on unarmed policemen, killing nine people and wounding 27 others, Philippines and UN officials said.

Members of the small nation’s 1,400-strong army suspected the policemen of allying themselves with a band of about 600 dismissed soldiers who have engaged in days of deadly clashes with the army.

The chaos is most the serious crisis East Timor has faced since it broke from Indonesian rule in 1999.

Layon, 45, is one of five Philippine police officers serving as advisers with the U.N. office in East Timor. He was in stable condition after being hit by a bullet in the stomach and has been airlifted to nearby Darwin, Australia for medical treatment, according to Asuque.