MANILA -- The Philippine government deported on Wednesday 279 Taiwanese arrested last month in simultaneous raids in various places in Metro Manila and Rizal province for alleged involvement in internet fraud.

Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. said that the aliens were deported aboard two chartered flights of the China Airlines and Eva Air that left the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) at 6:30 a.m.

They were brought to the airport aboard buses that fetched them from the Camp Vicente Lim in northern province of Laguna where they were detained since their arrest on Aug. 23.

David said the aliens were deported on findings that they were "undocumented, overstaying and undesirable aliens" and for being "serious threats to the general welfare and public policy." They were also placed in the immigration blacklist.

Records showed that the deportees were among the 291 Taiwanese and 87 others from Chinese Mainland arrested by joint police, naval and immigration intelligence operatives.

Also arrested were two suspected financiers of a gang involved in credit card fraud and human smuggling in Taiwan and Chinese Mainland.

The suspects allegedly used the internet to call and blackmail their victims in Taiwan and Chinese Mainland by representing themselves either as representatives of the police, prosecutor's office, courts, insurance companies, banks and other financial institutions.

They would falsely inform their unsuspecting victims that their personal bank accounts were under investigation for supposedly being used in money laundering and terrorist activities after which the victims would be told to deposit their money in a bank account provided by the syndicate.