The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has barred more than 130 registered sex offenders from entering the Philippines since the start of 2023.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the number of registered sex offenders (RSO) banned from visiting the country decreased to 130 from the 160 sex offenders reported in 2022.
He said most of the RSOs are convicted pedophiles and charged for molesting minors.
“We have established a working arrangement with the different foreign missions in Manila, who regularly provide us with the names of their nationals who have been convicted of sex crimes in their country,” the BI chief said in a forum.
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported that its officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have intercepted another sex offender, this time a Briton, who was convicted of child pornography in his country.
Tansingco made the statement following the exclusion of a 42 year old Briton who was denied entry at the NAIA 1 terminal last Oct. 14 upon his arrival from Kuwait.
The identified the sex offender as Anthony Collins who was immediately booked on the first available flight to his port of origin and placed in the BI blacklist of undesirable aliens.
According to the Interpol’s national central bureau (NCB) in Manila, Collins was convicted on May 27 last year by a court in Manchester, England for voyeurism and taking indecent photographs of two 16-year-old children.
The Philippine Center for Transnational Crime alerted the BI about Collins’ impending arrival in Manila, which prompted Tansingco to immediately issue a lookout order for the said British passenger.
Tansingco had warned these aliens to avoid traveling to the Philippines as there is a very big chance that they will be denied entry by immigration officers at the airports.