By Ferdinand Patinio
MANILA – Two convicted sex offenders from the United States have been barred from entering the country after their names prompted positive derogatory hits in the border control information system of the Bureau of Immigration (BI).
In a statement Wednesday, BI border control and intelligence unit (BCIU) overall deputy chief Joseph Cueto identified the excluded passengers as Nathan Lee Woodward and Bennison Noveda Flores at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminals 1 and 3, respectively.
Woodward arrived last Jan. 27 via a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight from Los Angeles.
“He was immediately issued an exclusion order and boarded on the next available PAL flight to Los Angeles that very same day,” Cueto said in a statement.
Woodward was convicted by a court in Nevada in 1990 on the charge of engaging in lewd and lascivious acts against a 14-year-old child. As a result of his conviction, he was required to register as a sex offender after serving his sentence.
Meanwhile, Flores arrived via a United Airlines flight from San Francisco on Feb. 5.
He is listed in the California State Registry after being previously convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a child.
The BI said activities and movements of registered sex offenders (RSO) in the US and other countries are continuously monitored as it enables authorities to inform their counterparts abroad if any of these sex offenders are reported to be traveling to a certain territory.
The Philippine Immigration Act expressly forbids the entry of persons who have been convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude.
Earlier, the BI launched the Project #Shieldkids campaign, urging the people to report foreign sex predators in the country.
They may report to the bureau’s portal at facebook.com/immigration.helpline.ph. (PNA)
