MANILA, Philippines — A total of 160 foreign-registered sex offenders (RSOs) were barred from entering the country in 2019, slightly higher than the 145 sex offenders who were intercepted in 2018, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said Wednesday.
In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, BI port operations division chief Grifton Medina said the foreign sex offenders were intercepted at different international airports in the country.
According to the immigration bureau, RSO refers to a “foreigner previously convicted of a sex crime in his country, who has finished serving his sentence or is out on parole or probation.”
Among those are pedophiles who were found guilty of raping minors.
Of the 160 RSOs intercepted in 2019, 128 were Americans, 11 were British nationals, six were Australians, four were Chinese, and two were from New Zealand.
A Cameroonian, a Canadian, a German, a Guatemalan, an Irish, a Korean, a Malaysian, a Russian, and a Taiwanese national were also denied entry to the Philippines for being sex offenders, according to BI.
The sex offenders, Medina said, were immediately turned back and booked on the first available flight to their port of origin.
Medina said sex predators “pose a serious threat to the well-being of Filipino women and children.”