(Photo courtesy of BI)
MANILA – Immigration officers have recently barred two Americans who are convicts of sexual crimes from entering the country.
In a news release on Friday, Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco said Danny Rodriguez, 52, was intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 in Pasay City on June 17; while Kenneth Allen Roedell, 72, was denied entry at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) on June 10.
“As a consequence of their exclusion, they have been placed in our immigration blacklist and perpetually banned from re-entering the Philippines for being undesirable aliens,” Tansingco said.
He said the foreigners are registered sex offenders (RSOs) who, under the Philippine Immigration Act, are deemed excludable aliens due to their conviction for crimes involving moral turpitude.
In 2003, Rodriguez was convicted on two counts of sexual assault in the second and third degrees wherein the victims are less than 14 years of age.
On the other hand, Roedell was convicted in 2004 for sexually molesting and engaging in lewd and lascivious acts against a 12-year-old victim.
Tansingco said the interception became possible due to a decades-long cooperative arrangement between the United States and Philippine governments wherein the former committed to provide the latter advance notice about traveling sex offenders.
He said the US law mandates the homeland security department to prevent child exploitation and other sexual crimes by notifying foreign countries about the upcoming foreign trips of US citizens convicted of sex crimes involving minors. (PNA)
The Philippine News Agency is a web-based newswire service of the Philippine government under the supervision of the News and Information Bureau (NIB) of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO).