Four convicted American sex offenders were barred from entering the Philippines, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said. on Monday, Feb. 12.
“We have been turning them away one after the other, yet they keep on coming here,” lamented BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco.
“But we will not relent because it is our duty in the BI to prevent the Philippines from being a hub of sex tourism,” he assured.
Tansingco identified the four American sex offenders as Herbert Nelson Price, 63; Thomas Dewey Wise, 68; Keith Knight Bonzon, 65; and John Kenneth Wilsher, 60.
In a statement, the BI said that Price and Wise were denied entry last Feb. 7 upon their arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, respectively.
It said that Price, who arrived from Los Angeles, was convicted by “ a court in Wisconsin for sexual battery wherein the victim is a 21-year-old woman.”
Wise, who arrived from Hong Kong, was convicted in North Carolina in 1997 “for indecent liberties or committing lewd or immoral acts on a child who is under 16 years of age,” it said.
“On Feb. 8, BI officers at the NAIA 1 excluded 65-year-old Keith Knight Bonzon who arrived aboard a Korean Airlines flight from Incheon, South Korea,” it also said.
“It was gathered that Bonzon was convicted by a US court for sexual assaulting a 23-year-old woman after intruding into her home,” it added
In the case of Wilsher, BI said that the American "was convicted in 1988 of criminal sexual conduct in the 1st degree in the state of Michigan."