BI bars convicted Romanian national from entering Philippines

Immigration authorities barred a 46-year-old Romanian national with a previous conviction for procuring women for prostitution from entering the Philippines after he arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 on 22 September, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said Thursday.

The BI identified the passenger as Razvan Mircea Nedelea, also known as Razvan Necule, whose travel to Manila had been flagged by the bureau’s intelligence unit because of his criminal record.

“Foreign nationals with records of criminal conviction, particularly those involved in serious offenses, should not expect to enter the Philippines simply because they are able to secure a ticket and travel here,” said BI Commissioner Joel Anthony M. Viado.

Meanwhile, Bienvenido Castillo III, deputy chief of the BI Anti-Terrorist Group (ATG), said intelligence information indicated that Nedelea had been identified as a member of a Romanian criminal group allegedly involved in trafficking women to Scotland.

Nedelea was subsequently convicted and sentenced for procuring women for prostitution, according to the BI.

Castillo had earlier asked the bureau’s APIS Operations Center (APOC) to monitor Nedelea’s travel and alert the ATG if he was detected attempting to enter the Philippines.

The APOC detected his travel details on 21 September, about nine hours before his scheduled arrival in Manila aboard a Qatar Airways flight, the BI said. APOC personnel then coordinated with the ATG and immigration officers assigned at NAIA Terminal 3.

When Nedelea arrived the following day, the primary immigration officer referred him to ATG personnel, who recommended that he be excluded from the Philippines and returned to his country of origin.