The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Monday that they prevented two foreign sex offenders from entering the Philippines.
The BI identified the offenders as 52-year-old Irishman Charles Henry Gabler and 29-year-old American Mark Halligan.
The foreigners were intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Gabler was barred from entering the country on June 23 when he arrived via a United Airlines flight from Guam.
Halligan was banned on July 4 upon arriving aboard an Emirates flight from Dubai.
“They were denied entry pursuant to a provision in our immigration law which prohibits the entry of foreigners convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude,” said BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco in a statement.
“Our country is off-limits to all foreign sex predators and it is our duty as immigration authorities to see to it that they are prevented from entering our borders to protect our women and children,” he said.
Both foreign nationals were blacklisted in the Philippines for being undesirable aliens.
Tansingco said it was Gabler’s second time to be turned away at the airport as he was previously excluded when he first attempted to enter the country in November 2022.
Public records show that Gabler was convicted in 2012 for raping a 16-year-old girl.
US records, meanwhile, showed Haligan was convicted of raping a 20-year-old woman in 2020. — DVM, GMA Integrated News
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