An American wanted in Missouri for first degree child molestation will be deported from the Philippines after being arrested in Pangasinan.
Immigration Chief Jaime Morente announced today (Sunday, August 4) that James Austin Holiday, aged 65, was arrested by members of the Fugitive Search Unit of the Bureau of Immigration last Monday in Lingayen, Pangasinan.
Mr Morente said that arrest of Holiday came after the US Embassy in Manila alerted his office about the alleged child abuser’s presence in the country.
He added that the US government had already revoked the passport of Holiday, thus making him an undocumented alien in the country.
“We will expel him for being an undesirable alien. His presence here poses a serious threat to our Filipino children, anyone of whom could be his next victim,” Mr Morente said in a statement.
Bureau of Immigration (BI) intelligence officer Bobby Raquepo said that Holiday had been hiding in the country since September last year to evade his prosecution in the US.
Raquepo noted that the American arrived in Manila barely a week after a judicial circuit court in Missouri had issued a warrant for his arrest.
Holiday is now detained at the Bicutan immigration detention centre pending the process of his deportation papers.
He will also be placed under the immigration blacklist to prevent him from returning to the Philippines.
The BI has announced numerous deportations of foreign nationals in recent months. In the past two weeks alone, an American wanted in Alaska for abducting his two children was arrested on board his boat, which was moored at the Ocean View Yacht Club on Samal Island. Leo James Chaplin, aged 60, is now awaiting deportation at Bicutan.
Then, last week, a British man wanted in the UK for internet fraud was arrested — a year after the BI arrested his younger brother. Jared William Ainsworth, aged 31, is also in detention awaiting deportation.
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