A suspected American child abuser was arrested at Manila’s airport while allegedly in the act of meeting up with an underage girl.
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said today (Tuesday, May 28) that 43-year-old Piotr Kmita was apprehended just minutes after he arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on a flight from Pudong, China.
He was then detained by the Philippine National Police’s women and children protection centre in Pampanga, the home province of the rescued girl.
BI Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina said Kmita will be charged for violating Republic Act 10364 or the expanded anti-trafficking in persons act. This penalises the act of “procuring a child for prostitution and obtaining a person for the purpose of prostitution, pornography or sexual exploitation”.
Bienvenido Castillo, who heads the BI-NAIA’s Border Control and Intelligence Unit, said that US Homeland Security Intelligence (HSI) had sought the assistance of the BI after Kmita was discovered to have engaged in sexually explicit conversations with the girl via Facebook.
“The HSI then relayed the information to the PNP regional office in Pampanga, and we jointly conducted the operations to intercept Kmita upon his arrival in Manila,” Castillo added.
Castillo described how his agents tailed Kmita from the moment he landed until he left the airport terminal to meet the girl.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente commended the efforts of the officers in stopping the would-be child abuser. “Different agencies should work together to successfully weed out undesirables like him,” he said. “His presence here poses a serious threat to our women and children.
“Thanks to the vigilance and cooperation of our law enforcement agencies, as well as to the HSI for giving us information that led to this paedophile’s arrest.”
He also said that Kmita would not be deported to the USA until he had been tried in the Philippines and, if convicted, served his sentence.
He also warned anyone thinking of travelling to the Philippines for the purpose of child abuse, saying: “Do not prey on our women and children. We do not welcome sex tourists in the country.”
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