BI intercepts 2 foreign sex offenders
THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported foreigners with intention to commit sex crimes in the country continue as BI officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) intercepted two Americans previously convicted of various sex crimes in the US.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco identified the first passenger as Eric Blair Smith, 57, who arrived at the NAIA 1 terminal last Thursday via a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight from Los Angeles, California.
Smith, according to Tansingco, is a registered sex offender (RSO) in California where he was charged and convicted for sexual offenses on several occasions in 1986 and 2013.
“As in the case of other RSOs who have arrived in the country, he was also refused and booked on the first available PAL flight to Los Angeles where he came from,” Tansingco said.
According to US authorities, the American was found guilty in 2013 of committing sexual battery by intimately touching the victim against the latter’s will.
Shortly before that incident, he also received a prison sentence for engaging in lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age.
Records further show that in 1986 Smith was found guilty of molesting a child under 18 years of age.
Tansingco also announced the interception of Marlon Buniel, 57, another American RSO.
Buniel arrived on board a PAL flight from Honolulu last October 20. He was found guilty of sexual assault in the fourth degree and kidnapping in Hawaii in 2012.
The BI chief added that both Smith and Buniel were put in the immigration blacklist of undesirable aliens and are now perpetually banned from entering the country.
