THE crown jewel of Philippine tourism, Boracay Island, recorded visitor arrivals at 11,898 visitors in January 2021 alone, averaging 300 to 400 visitors a day.
This was a fall by 80 percent, however, from the 60,213 domestic tourists who arrived in January 2020, according to data from the Department of Tourism-Region 6 (Western Visayas), as the island continued to reel from the apparent public’s caution over traveling amid Covid-19. Arrivals in January 2021 were also 22 percent down from the 15,307 who arrived in December 2020. Boracay had reopened to tourists from general community quarantine areas last October.
It would be recalled that island stakeholders had been blaming its poor tourism numbers to the prohibitive cost of RT-PCR tests. The DOT, however, has already been subsidizing the cost of RT-PCR tests by 50 percent in government hospitals such as University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center. (See, “DOT arm ties up with children’s hospital on Covid-19 testing,” in the BusinessMirror, December 29, 2020.)
DOT sues fakers of RT-PCR test results
AS this developed, the DOT has finally decided to crack down on forgers of RT-PCR test results by pressing charges against the six tourists from Manila who were nabbed in January for Falsification of Public Documents, after presenting fake RT-PCR test results to enable them to enter Boracay. Three of them turned out to be Covid-positive and were confined in a Kalibo quarantine facility.
In a news statement, the DOT said it was Marc Judicpa of the DOT-Region 6’s Boracay Field and Compliance Monitoring Office who filed the complaint of falsification before the provincial prosecutor in Kalibo, Aklan.
“We laud the recent parallel actions of the Department of the Interior and Local Government [DILG] and the Aklan and Malay local government units [LGUs] to reinforce IATF-MEID [Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases] regulations and health and safety protocols for the protection of guests, workers and host communities,” said Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat.
“We will continue to be vigilant and ensure that these collaborative interventions will deter the entry of such delinquent and unwanted visitors to the island. This is how serious the DOT is in enforcing existing health and safety rules,” she warned.
The DILG had earlier ordered the Philippine National Police to arrest and prosecute individuals who forge their RT-PCR tests, a crime punishable under Republic Act 11332, or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act. Said law imposes a fine of P20,000, but not more than P50,000 on the guilty party, or imprisonment of not less than one month but not more than six months, or both fine and imprisonment, at the court’s discretion.
Specifically, Section 1-b of said law stipulates, “Tampering of records relating to notifiable diseases or health events of public health concern, which includes official medical test results or medical certificates, or such other documents and records issued by public health authorities is punishable by law.”
Also, the DOT underscored the need for LGUs to tighten the registration procedure of would-be tourists by thoroughly validating the latter’s submitted Covid test results and confirmed hotel bookings. At present, there are about 10 to 12 validation and monitoring officers per shift on two shifts a day, seven days a week. These officers verify required documents to the island, before a QR code is given.
However, the six tourists were given provisional codes to enter Boracay, even before their documents had been fully validated.
“In anticipation of the further relaxation of regulations governing inter- and intra-regional movements, the LGUs should be prepared to address an increase in the number of applications and visits. Enforcement is key and we must all do our share in keeping Boracay safe,” stressed Romulo Puyat.
Image credits: File Photo