Immigration bureau: Registered sex offenders barred from entering PHL

Foreigners who are registered sex offenders in their home countries will be denied entry to the Philippines as they are deemed a threat to public safety, the Bureau of Immigration said Thursday.

 

In a statement, Immigration chief Siegfred Mison said any alien found to be in the registry of sex offenders will be issued an order to leave.

 

On the other hand, registered sex offenders who managed to enter the Philippines will be "ordered to leave within 15 days," and their names will be included on the Immigration blacklist.

• American Robert Snyder, 67, who was arrested in Dumaguete City last May 17 by BI agents and US law enforcers. Snyder had been a fugitive for 10 years in connection with a sex assault case. He has been deported.
• five fugitives accused of rape and child molestation in their homeland were deported simultaneously by BI after their passports were revoked by authorities last February.

 

Mison said that if the foreign registered sex offender holds a visa other than a temporary visitor visa, the legal division shall commence forfeiture proceedings against him or her.

 

The visa forfeiture order shall include the order to leave with blacklisting.

 

Should the alien registered sex offender fail to comply with the order to leave, the BI legal division will initiate deportation proceedings.

 

"The BI shall ensure that the relevant immigration information of the registered sex offender shall be attached to the travel records, alien registration records and derogatory records, and the same will be part of the sex offender file," the Immigration statement added.

 

Also in the statement, Mison ordered that once the BI receives information about a registered sex offender, the office of the commissioner or other BI offices will endorse the offender's file to the BI legal division within 24 hours from receipt of the letter or records from authorized personnel of a foreign embassy.

 

Within 48 hours from receipt of the sex offender file, the legal division shall draft an order directing the offender's inclusion in the BI blacklist. — Joel Locsin/RSJ, GMA News