BUREAU of Immigration (BI) officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) barred from entering the country two more Americans who were previously convicted of sex crimes.
In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco identified the two passengers as Calvin Lee Spencer, 50, and Kevin David Bowens, 61, who were turned back on separate occasions at NAIA Terminals 1 and 3, respectively.
Tansingco said Spencer was intercepted last October 25 after he arrived aboard a Philippine Airlines flight from Los Angeles, California.
The United States (US) government informed the BI that a court in Texas sentenced Spencer to ten years in prison in 2013 after being found guilty of molesting a 14-year-old female victim.
Bowens, meanwhile, was denied entry on October 28 when he arrived via a Cebu Pacific flight from Hongkong. The US government said that in 2005, a US court in Ohio convicted and sentenced Bowens to five years in prison for raping 16-year-old girl.
Americans convicted of sex offenses are required to register themselves with the authorities in their country, thus they are called registered sex offenders (RSOs). The US provides the BI on a regular basis the names and identities of RSOs who are believed to have entered or are about to enter the Philippines.
Philippine laws prohibit the entry of foreign nationals who have been previously convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude.
Both Spencer and Bowens have been included in the BI’s blacklist, barring them from returning to the Philippines in the future.
