The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Saturday said that three more Americans were refused entry into the country for having criminal records involving sexual assaults.

Two of them, according to Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco, were intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), while one was turned back at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA).

Tansingco said all three were immediately excluded and onboarded on the next available flight back to their port of origin.

The BI chief added that under the Philippine Immigration Act, foreign nationals convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude are automatically barred from entering the country.

On 25 April, 81-year-old David Earl Uland, who had arrived from Taipei on an Eva Air trip, was also intercepted at NAIA Terminal 1.

Based on the information gathered by the Bureau, Uland was reportedly convicted by a US court in 1999 for molesting a minor.

On 1 May, a passenger named Peter John Cruz, 64, was denied entry at NAIA Terminal 3 after he arrived via a United Airlines flight from Guam.

In November 1992, Cruz was convicted twice by a court in Guam on charges of criminal sexual misconduct in the first and second degrees, wherein his victim was a 14-year-old girl.

On 3 May at MCIA, the Bureau intercepted 56-year-old Clarence Paul Nique, who arrived via an Eva Air flight from Taipei. Nique was found guilty in 2014 by a Michigan court of second-degree criminal sexual behavior with a seven-year-old victim.

The three Americans were placed on the immigration blacklist and banned from entering the Philippines permanently.