MANILA, Philippines – An American national who was recently deported for being a suspected pedophile will remain on the Bureau of Immigration (BI) blacklist to prevent him from returning to the country.
BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said Mark McDowell, 58, was deported last April 8.
“McDowell was deported two months ago. The United Sates (US) embassy earlier gave us information and from that we placed him in our watchlist. Until now, he remains barred from entering the country,” Libanan said.
The US-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told the BI that McDowell was an alleged pedophile.
“If he is in the country, he would be deported because he has a derogatory record,” Libanan said.
The US-ICE also told the BI last February that McDowell was deported by Korean immigration authorities and might commit crimes involving moral turpitude in the Philippines.
Records gathered from the BI also showed that McDowell was previously convicted for child molestation but the case was set aside. Instead he was convicted of a misdemeanor for 647.6 (A) of the California Penal Code, annoying of a child. He was sentenced to three years’ probation and served 92 days’ imprisonment in San Fernando, California.
McDowell, in a letter sent to The STAR, said he was not a sex offender and “the US Embassy simply heard about the story and warned the Philippine government that he might commit a crime in the Philippines.”
“But the US itself was in no way trying to find me,” he clarified.
As for the incident in South Korea, he believed that the Korean immigration authorities were told “about my convictions, so they requested that I leave, which I did. I was not deported.”
McDowell added that he traveled to the Philippines to visit his girlfriend, who was reportedly about to graduate from a nursing school. But he missed the graduation because he was locked up inside the BI detention center for 50 days.
Records showed that he had been living in the country since Jan. 13 and the US embassy tipped the BI of his presence six days later, on Jan. 19.
On that day, McDowell’s name was added to the BI watchlist and the order was circulated to the agency’s field offices at the international airports.
McDowell was arrested last Feb. 17, or 29 days after his inclusion in the list, when he went to the BI’s main office in Manila to apply for an extension of his tourist visa. – Evelyn Macairan