A 46-year-old Romanian national with a previous conviction for procuring women for prostitution, was intercepted and excluded upon his arrival recently at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 in Pasay City, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported Thursday.
According to Bienvenido Castillo III, Deputy Chief of the BI Anti-Terrorist Group (ATG), excluded was Razvan Mircea Nedelea, also known as Razvan Necule, who arrived in the country on Sept. 22.
Records and intelligence information identified him as a member of a Romanian criminal group involved in trafficking women to Scotland. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced for procuring women for prostitution.
Castillo requested the BI APIS Operations Center (APOC) to monitor his travel and immediately alert the ATG upon detection.
The APOC detected Nedelea’s travel information aboard a Qatar Airways flight bound for Manila on Sept. 21 and promptly coordinated with the ATG and notified the concerned airport terminal.
BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado lauded the vigilance of immigration personnel and the effective coordination among APOC, ATG, and airport immigration officers.
“The bureau will remain vigilant in protecting our borders. 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,” he said.
Viado reiterated that the BI will continue to harness intelligence, advance passenger information, and inter-agency coordination to identify and prevent the entry of foreign nationals who may pose risks to public safety and national security. (PNA)
