Four more foreign sex offenders from the US were barred from entering the country over the last few days, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said.
In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the four Americans were denied at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), and they were immediately turned back on the next available flights to their ports of origin.
“We have been turning them away one after the other, yet they keep on coming here. But we will not relent because it is our duty in the BI to prevent the Philippines from being a hub of sex tourism,” the BI chief stressed.
Earlier, Tansingco reported that BI port personnel denied the entry of 171 foreign sex offenders in 2023, all of whom were blacklisted and banned from entering the country.
The first passenger to be intercepted was 63-year-old Herbert Nelson Price, who was denied entry at the NAIA Terminal 1 after arriving aboard a Philippine Airlines flight from Los Angeles.
Information received from the US government revealed that Price was convicted in a court in Wisconsin for sexual battery wherein the victim is a 21-year-old woman.
BI bars American sex offender during Chinese New Year
Also on Feb. 7, 68-year-old Thomas Dewey Wise was intercepted at the NAIA 3 terminal upon his arrival from Hong Kong on a Cathay Pacific flight.
A North Carolina reportedly convicted Wise in 1997 for indecent liberties or committing lewd or immoral acts on a child who is under 16 years of age.
On Feb. 8, BI officers at the NAIA 1 excluded 65-year-old Keith Knight Bonzon, who arrived aboard a Korean Airlines flight from Incheon, South Korea.
It was gathered that Bonzon was convicted by a US court for sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman after intruding into her home.
Over the weekend, on February 10, 60-year-old John Kenneth Wilsher was excluded after also arriving from Incheon on board a Korean Airlines flight.
He was convicted in 1988 of criminal sexual conduct in the 1st degree in the state of Michigan.
All four boarded the next available flight back to their country of origin and have been included in the BI’s roster of blacklisted aliens.
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