BI denies entry of two foreign sex offenders to PH

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) logo is superimposed over the airport scene. INQUIRER.net FILES

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has intercepted two foreign sex offenders at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) and barred them from entering the Philippines.

BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco identified the foreigners, who are now included in the bureau’s blacklist of undesirable aliens, as Zachary Tyler Thompson, 39, and Paul Neal Coltharp, 46, both American nationals.

Tansingco said Thompson was apprehended at Naia Terminal 1 after arriving from Los Angeles, California, in the United States. He noted that Thompson was convicted in 2013 and 2015 for possession of obscene materials and other sexual offenses against minors.

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Coltharp, meanwhile, was stopped at Naia Terminal 1 on December 27 after arriving from Taipei, Taiwan, according to the BI chief.

The agency likewise said that Paul Neal Coltharp was also intercepted on December 27 at the NAIA Terminal 1. Coltharp arrived from Taipei, Taiwan. A California court convicted Coltharp of molestation of a minor in 1998, Tansingco added.

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Thompson and Coltharp were already sent back to their ports of origin, the bureau official said.

Tansingco explained that the two men are “excludable aliens” whose entries into the country are forbidden, as they have committed crimes involving moral turpitude.