American sex convicts intercepted by BI

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported on Friday that two Americans who were found guilty of sexual offenses in their homeland were denied entry into the country at the international airports in Manila and Cebu.

BI commissioner Norman Tansingco identified the American passengers as Danny Albera Rodrigues, who was excluded at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 last 17 June and Kenneth Allen Roedell, who was also denied entry at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) last 10 June 2024.

“As a consequence of their exclusion, they have been placed on our immigration blacklist and perpetually banned from re-entering the Philippines for being undesirable aliens,” Tansingco said.

He added that the two American pedophiles are registered sex offenders (RSOs) who are considered excludable foreigners under the Philippine Immigration Act because of their convictions for morally repugnant offenses.

Initial reports said that in 2003, Rodriguez was found guilty of two charges of second and third-degree sexual assault against minors.

Roedell, on the other hand, was also convicted in 2004 for sexually molesting and engaging in lewd and lascivious acts against a 12-year-old victim.

Tansingco said that the detection of the two pedophiles was made possible by a decades-long cooperative agreement between the US and Philippine governments, under which the former agreed to furnish the latter with early notification of traveling sex offenders.

He added that US law requires the Homeland Security Department to prevent child exploitation and other sexual crimes by informing foreign countries about the future foreign trips of US nationals convicted of sex offenses involving minors.

The continual exclusion of sex offenders is part of the BI’s #Shieldkids campaign, which seeks to locate, arrest, and deport sexual predators who prey on Filipino children.