THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) said Thursday it barred the entry of 145 foreign nationals convicted of sex crimes in their home countries during the first 11 months of last year.
In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, BI port operations chief Grifton Medina said the number of registered sex offenders (RSOs) denied entry from January to November of 2018 was slightly lower than the 165 sex convicts intercepted in the same period last year.
RSO refers to a convicted sex offender who had served his sentences or is under probation or parole.
The US and other countries maintain a sex offender registry that allows authorities to keep track of the activities and movement of sex offenders.
Medina said the RSOs intercepted at the airports were immediately turned away and booked on the first available flight to their port of origin.
“Our immigration law expressly provides for the exclusion of foreigners convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude,” Medina said.
Morente assured that the BI will continue to be uncompromising in its campaign to ban the entry of foreign sex offenders into the country.
“These aliens pose a serious and real threat to Filipinos. We are trying to prevent women and children from being victimized by these convicted perverts, should they enter the country,” the BI chief said.
Morente also acknowledged the assistance extended to the BI by its counterparts abroad, including the Interpol, by continuously providing the bureau with information about RSOs so the latter could be blacklisted and banned from entering the Philippines. (Jun Ramirez)
