03 January 2024 BI INTERCEPTS AMERICAN SEX OFFENDER DURING NEW YEAR RUSH The Bureau of Immigration (BI) opened the new year by intercepting another American sex offender from entering the country at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). In a statement, BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco identified the passenger as 39-year-old Zachary Tyler Thompson who was intercepted at the NAIA Terminal 1 after arriving aboard a Philippine Airlines from Los Angeles. He was convicted both in 2013 and 2015 for possessing obscene materials depicting a minor in sexual conduct and for annoying or molesting a child under 18 years of age. Meanwhile the BI also reported the interception of 46-year-old Paul Neal Coltharp, who was also intercepted at the NAIA terminal 1 last Dec. 27 after he arrived aboard an Eva Air flight from Taipei. According to the US government, a California court convicted Coltharp of child molestation in 1998 wherein the victim is a 14-year-old girl. Both aliens were immediately excluded and flown back to their port of origin. Their name have likewise been included in the BI blacklist of undesirable aliens. The BI chief explained that as a registered sex offenders (RSOs) both Thompson and Coltharp are excludable aliens under the immigration act which forbids the entry of aliens convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude.