(File photo)
MANILA – Some 150 foreign registered sex offenders (RSOs) have been barred from entering the country since January this year, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Thursday.
In a statement, BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the bulk of the RSOs were intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) while a few were excluded at the airports in Mactan, Cebu and Clark, Pampanga from January to Nov. 29.
He, meanwhile, expressed concern over the increase of RSOs attempting to enter the country.
“During the pandemic, there was an increase of online exploitation of women and children. When international travel resumed, the number of RSOs rose, which could show that the exploitation is being continued,” the BI chief said.
Two American RSOs were the latest to be intercepted by immigration authorities in separate incidents at the NAIA Terminal 1 on Wednesday.
Francisco Narvios Tecson, 55, was intercepted upon his arrival aboard Eva Air flight from Taiwan. He was convicted of sexually molesting a child in the United States 13 years ago.
“Thus, he is an excludable foreign passenger for being convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude as provided in our Philippine immigration act,” Tansingco said.
According to the BI, Tecson was convicted in Texas in 2010 for having indecent contact with an 8-year-old female.
The BI received information from the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime (PCTC) that he planned to travel to the Philippines.
This prompted Tansingco to issue a directive alerting BI officers in all ports of entry on Tecson's possible arrival.
Upon his arrival, frontline immigration officers checked his records which resulted in his interception.
On the same day, BI officers also intercepted 65-year-old Dale Lloyd Bayless.
Records show that Bayless was convicted in 1990 of sodomy for an offense in 1989 against a 9-year-old female victim in Neosho, Missouri. (PNA)
