MANILA – The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Monday reported that a 55-year-old Czech tourist was recently barred at the Clark International Airport (CIA) in Pampanga for rude behavior after protesting he was being required to register in the bureau’s eTravel system.
BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said Jaroslav Konsel was denied entry last Jan. 23 after arriving aboard a Cebu Pacific flight from Hong Kong.
The foreigner was turned away after the latter uttered expletives against the BI officers who asked him to first register in the eTravel online system before he could be admitted into the country.
BI-CIA officials reported that Konsel immediately became rude and started mouthing foul language when he was told by the BI officer to first fill out the e-travel form online.
Tansingco said Konsel’s act of defiantly refusing to comply with eTravel requirement amounts to disrespecting the country’s laws and its persons of authority.
“Reports that he taunted and mocked the immigration officers who were politely explaining to him the eTravel requirement is enough ground for him to be excluded and banned from entering the country,” he said in a statement.
Tansingco also issued an order placing Konsel in the BI blacklist of undesirable aliens.
Registration in the eTravel system is mandatory for all international passengers as it is an electronic travel declaration system which receives and stores information and data about all passengers who enter and exit the country.
It replaced the arrival and departure cards that international travelers used to fill out as it harmonizes all data on passengers into one digital platform for all government agencies collecting arriving data, thus providing a quick and seamless travel experience for the public.
The eTravel can be filled out 72 hours prior to arrival to the Philippines.
Meanwhile, BI officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City have turned away an American pedophile who was banned from entering the country for reportedly sexually abusing on several occasions a 16-year-old girl in Mindanao two years ago.
The BI’s immigration protection and border enforcement section (I-Probes) identified the passenger as 80-year-old Jerold Jay Whiting, who was denied entry at the NAIA 3 terminal last Jan. 25 upon his arrival aboard a United Airlines flight from Guam.
“We cannot allow foreign sex offenders like him to step in our territory for even a second as they pose a very serious threat to our women and children,” Tansingco said.
Records show that Whiting was intercepted by the BI after receiving reports that his victim (whose name was withheld) filed a complaint with the Iligan City police against a woman who allegedly pimped her to enter into sexual relationship with the American.
The sexual abuses reportedly perpetrated against the victim allegedly occurred on several occasions in hotels in Cagayan de Oro, Iligan and Manila. (PNA)
