FAKE it ’til you make it.
For 100 tourists who felt too constricted by the pandemic lockdown in Metro Manila, the allure of visiting Boracay Island proved too strong. So much so they decided to fake their RT-PCR test results to show they were negative for Covid-19.
As a result, local government officials of Malay, to which Boracay belongs, have moved to ban their entry to the municipality for three years.
Municipal councilor Nenette Aguirre-Graf, who spearheaded a resolution with Vice Mayor Niño Cawaling and councilor Datu Yap Sumndad, told the BusinessMirror, “We are coming up with an ordinance to declare as persona non grata and ban for three years [from entering the municipality] the tourists caught with fake RT-PCR test results.”
Aguirre-Graf’s proposal was discussed during the Sangguniang Bayan Malay meeting on Thursday. She said the latest count of forgers has hit 100 since Boracay was reopened to general community quarantine last October. It also includes the six tourists from Metro Manila, apprehended on January 21, three of whom were found to be Covid-positive and have since been transferred to the Aklan Training Center, a quarantine facility in Kalibo.
A negative RT-PCR test is a major requirement for tourists to enter Boracay Island, the acknowledged “crown jewel of Philippine tourism.”
Slow verification by Aklan govt
The Department of Tourism (DOT) has appealed to travelers to stop forging and faking travel documents, or else face fines and proper criminal charges by the local government unit, which may include the penalty of imprisonment.
In a news statement, the agency also reminded the public that subsidized RT-PCR tests for Manila-based tourists are available from the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, at P900 and P750, respectively. Would-be tourists only need to submit their application for the subsidized tests to the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), the marketing arm of the DOT.
The DOT also urged its partner-local government units (LGUs) to tighten their assessment of applications made through their registration
system.
TPB Chief Operating Officer Ma. Anthonette C. Velasco-Allones said the Aklan government “should be able to verify the documents [submitted by the would-be tourist to Boracay] before they even send the QR code for the visit [just like how Baguio does it in their Visita scheme].”
In a number of the fake-test cases, however, published reports showed that the violators already made it to the island due to the local government’s slow verification process.
Allones said most medical centers respond immediately to verification inquiries, “so it could be the LGU was slow in verifying [the RT-PCR tests], because the tourists were already on the island when they were validated to have submitted fake test results.”
SLMC to tighten Covid screening
Meanwhile, a source in the DOT separately told this paper, “Most of the presented faked test results were said to have been from St. Luke’s.”
As such, St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) is now looking at tightening its procedures in releasing Covid-19 screening results, in the light of the rising number of tourists faking their RT-PCR test results for their trips to Boracay Island.
A hospital insider said, “We are asking our IT [information technology] to consider providing QR code [on our test results] for local travel.” The source added that a QR code isn’t actually a requirement for local travel, but the medical center, with branches in Quezon City and Bonifacio Global City, is now considering using it, “because of this incident [faking of Covid-19 rest results].”