In observance of the Holy Week, the Philippine News Agency’s online news service will be off on March 29, Good Friday, and March 30, Black Saturday. Normal operations will resume on March 31, Easter Sunday.

— The Editors

Americans top alien sex offenders denied entry to PH in 2019

By Ferdinand Patinio

January 8, 2020, 6:45 pm

MANILA -- Americans topped the list of foreign sex offenders who were barred from entering the country in 2019, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said Wednesday.

In his report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, BI port operations division chief Grifton Medina said 128 Americans are among the 160 registered sex offenders (RSOs) encountered at the airports were immediately turned back and booked on the first available flight to their port of origin.

The number is followed by 11 Britons, six Australians, four Chinese, and two New Zealanders.

Also listed is a Cameroonian, a Canadian, a German, a Guatemalan, an Irish, a South Korean, a Malaysian, a Russian, and a Taiwanese.

He added that last year’s number was slightly higher than the 145 aliens who were intercepted in 2018.

The BI official said the country’s immigration act expressly mandates the exclusion of foreigners convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude.

RSO refers to a foreigner previously convicted of a sex crime in his country, who has finished serving his sentence or is out on parole or probation. Many are pedophiles charged and found guilty of raping or sexually molesting minors.

In the US and other Western countries, governments maintain a sex offender registry that allows authorities to trace activities and movements of RSOs.

Meanwhile, Morente vowed that they will continue to ban the entry of RSOs into the Philippines which, he said, will always be off-limits to sex predators “who pose a serious threat to the well-being of Filipino women and children”.

He said they continue to receive information from their foreign counterparts on RSOs who might possibly travel to the Philippines.

Those who were denied entry were immediately placed in the Immigration blacklist and barred from entering the country upon their arrival in any Philippine port of entry. (PNA)

 

Comments