The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Thursday that immigration officers at international airports have reported an increase in the number of efforts made by registered sex offenders (RSOs) to enter the country.

In a report given to BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco, the BI officers said that they have recently excluded four sex convicts who sought admission as tourists on separate occasions this March.

On 16 March, the bureau excluded 44-year-old American national Chad Heitz at the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA), who arrived via a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong.

The bureau found out that in 2013, Heitz was found guilty on one count of criminal sexual misconduct with a child victim who was 15 years old, according to information obtained from a US district court located in Michigan.

On 22 March, at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1, the bureau barred another American national who was identified as Vincent Mariano Espinal Jr., a 33-year-old who arrived in the country via a Philippine Airlines flight from Guam.

In 2008, Espinal was convicted in Guam for one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct as a second-degree felony.

A 2009 news article described him as being accused of having sexual relations with a female minor.

The bureau also stopped the entry of a 79-year-old British national, Malcolm Frederick Beaumont, who arrived on board an Emirates flight from Dubai.

Beaumont was convicted in 2012 and in 2017 for making indecent images of children.

On Holy Monday, another American sex offender was barred after arriving on board a United Airlines flight from San Francisco.

The American was identified as Ennis Cheko Montgomery, 55 years old, who was convicted in 1989 for predatory criminal sexual assault, with his victim being only 11 years old.

All four were denied entry to the country and were included in the immigration blacklist, effectively banning them from entering the country.