By Jennifer P. Rendon
From paradise island to quarantine facility.
A group of six tourists were arrested over accusations that they allegedly presented a fake Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) result, a requisite for non-Aklan visitors to enter Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Pablito, Malay police chief, temporarily withheld the names of the tourists.
The group was composed of four females and two males who are residents of the cities of Quezon, Parañaque, and Makati in Metro Manila.
They presumably arrived over the weekend.
Pablito said authorities check the RT-PCR results of tourists before they can reach the island.
“They noted a discrepancy in the serial number of the RT-PCR results of the six,” Pablito said.
He was then asked to further verify the test result.
But the local police could not get through the contact number of the testing center where the group allegedly took their test.
Pablito said he coordinated with police authorities in Mandaluyong City to check with
Safeguard DNA Diagnostic Center with address in Mandaluyong City to verify the authenticity of the documents presented by the six tourists.
It turned out that only one of them has a real test result while the others were holding fake or “Photoshopped” copies.
Pablito said the manager of the diagnostic center verbally informed him of the result early afternoon of Dec 7, 2020.
By 4 pm of the same day, they received a written certification from Safeguard DNA Diagnostic Center attesting that only one of the results was authentic.
Members of Malay Police Station immediately arrested the six tourists for Falsification of Documents and violation of Republic Act 11332 (Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act) or RA 11469 (Bayanihan to Heal as One Act).
The six were immediately taken to Aklan Training Center, the province’s covid quarantine facility, in Barangay Old Buswang, Kalibo, Aklan. They will be placed under quarantine for 14 days.
Pablito said they also had their swab specimen taken for another test.
Meanwhile, Colonel Esmeraldo Osia, Jr., Aklan police chief, has warned violators “not to challenge the Philippine National Police, particularly our forces here in Aklan, so as the government, for at the end of the day you’ll regret it.”
He said the local police, together with the Inter-Agency Task Force, will make sure that standard health protocols will be enforced to maintain the safety of tourists and residents alike.
