US pedophiles barred at NAIA

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Wednesday that BI officers at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) barred two American pedophiles who attempted to enter the country last weekend.

In a report given to BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco, the BI Border Control and Intelligence Unit (BI-BCIU) identified the first excluded passenger as 56-year-old Nathan Lee Woodward, who arrived at NAIA’s Terminal 1 on 27 January aboard a Philippine Airlines flight from Los Angeles.

According to BI-BCIU, Woodward was denied entry after his name prompted a positive derogatory hit in the bureau’s border control information system when the BI officer processed him and scanned his passport.

BI-BCIU Overall Deputy Chief Joseph Cueto said that he immediately issued an exclusion order against Woodward and boarded him on the next available flight bound for Los Angeles via Philippine Airlines on the same day of his arrival.

Cueto added that, based on the records, it shows that Woodward was convicted by a court in Nevada in 1990 on the charge of engaging in lewd and lascivious acts against a 14-year-old child.

As a result of his conviction, his name was registered as that of a sex offender after he served his sentence.

The activities and travels of registered sexual offenders (RSO) in the US and other countries are closely monitored, as this allows law enforcement to notify its international counterparts if any of these RSO are suspected of entering their countries.

The Philippine Immigration Act expressly forbids the entry of persons who have been convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude.

Moreover, the BI reported that on 5 February, at NAIA Terminal 3, it also excluded another American sex offender.

The said passenger was identified as Bennison Noveda Flores, who was on board a United Airlines flight from San Francisco.

Flores is listed in the California State Registry after being previously convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a child.

Earlier, the BI launched the Project #Shieldkids campaign, urging citizens to report foreign sex predators in the country to their portal at www.facebook.com/immigration.helpline.ph.