American sex offender barred at Naia

MANILA, Philippines — An American national previously convicted of rape and other sexual offenses was barred at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Tuesday.

In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, BI Port Operations Division chief Grifton Medina identified the 61-year-old foreigner as Robert Joseph Binford, who was barred at Naia Terminal 1 on May 2 upon his arrival aboard a Philippine Airlines flight from Los Angeles, California.

Medina said in a statement sent to the media that Binford was denied entry and made to board the next available flight to his port of origin.

According to BI Intelligence Division Chief Fortunato Manahan, Jr., they received information from the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) about Binford’s offenses.

“He was issued an exclusion order upon seeing his record in our centralized database,” said Manahan.

He added that Binford was immediately included in the bureau’s blacklist of “undesirable aliens.”

According to Morente, Binford has reportedly been on the Interpol’s blue notice list since 2010 and is considered a high-risk offender with a history of committing violent actions.

Interpol notices are international requests for cooperation or alerts to allow police in its member countries to share crime-related information. A blue notice is for the collection of additional information about a person’s identity, location, or activities related to a crime.

“Our border control officers remain vigilant and will always thwart the entry of undesirable aliens even amidst this COVID-19 pandemic,” said Morente, warning other foreigners with a criminal records against attempting to enter the country.

EDV