Girl torn between staying in Japan or joining Pinoy parents up for deportation

MANILA, Philippines - Thirteen-year-old Noriko Calderon, who was born and raised in Japan, may have to quit school and join her Filipino parents who will be deported back to the Philippines. "I'm very shocked. I will not be able to continue studying if I'm apart from my parents. I want to live in Japan together with my parents," she said in a report by the Japan Times. According to the report, Justice Minister Eisuke Mori on Friday said that Japan's Justice Ministry has decided not to allow Noriko and her parents Arlan and Sarah Calderon to continue to stay together in the country. The decision was relayed to the couple, to whom deportation orders were issued, when they arrived at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau to seek special permission for residence in Japan with their daughter. Noriko was born in 1995 in Japan after her parents entered the country in the early 1990s using different people's passports. She currently attends a junior high school in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture. Immigration authorities have told the Filipino couple that their daughter is the only one eligible for a special permission for residence. "Noriko is still 13 years old. We will not be able to leave her alone in Japan," said Arlan in the report. The provisional release status for the family, which expired on Friday, has been extended for another two weeks until February 27 so that the family can prepare for their departure. But the family will reportedly seek a special permission for residence again when they present themselves at the bureau on the 27th. They had also previously filed a lawsuit to seek the nullification of the deportation order against them, but the Supreme Court rejected it last September. - Kimberly Jane T. Tan, GMANews.TV