SECURITY FORCES recently intercepted 10 people, including women from Maguindanao’s Parang town, trying to enter Zamboanga City with fake RT-PCR test results.
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| A photo released by the 74th Infatry Battalion shows the intercepted travellers from Maguindanao's Parang town. |
The group was in a van travelling when security forces stopped them at a checkpoint in the village of Licomo. They presented Covid-19 negative RT-PCR test results which eventually were found to be fake.
Mayor Beng Climaco, head of the local Covid-19 task force, praised the vigilance of the soldiers from the 74th Infantry Battalion and policemen from Station 1, including staffs from the City Health Office manning the post, for intercepting the group.
Those intercepted said they were supposed to attend the burial of a relative in the village of Talisayan.
The 74th Infantry Battalion under Lt. Col. Julius
Villena previously, intercepted nearly two dozen boat passengers in Tictapul.
Some of them natives of Basilan and the others were from Tungawan town in the
neighboring province of Zamboanga Sibugay.
At
least 17 people from Surigao were also intercepted in Zamboanga City on their
way to Sulu province to work, but the group escaped after one of them turned
out to be positive for the deadly Covid-19 respiratory disease.
Climaco
ordered the police and military to search for the group and put all of them
under quarantine. Zamboanga City police chief Colonel Rexmel Reyes and Joint
Task Force Zamboanga commander Colonel Randolph Rojas told the mayor that the men
escaped to Sulu’s island town of Lugus on a motorboat.
The
local government coordinated with the Sulu Covid-19 task force and informed it
that one of the workers was carrying the virus and may have infected the
others.
Climaco
praised security forces and residents for their vigilance and told policemen
and soldiers to strictly deny people entering Zamboanga without the negative
RT-PCR test result.
The
mayor repeatedly warned individuals who use faked RT-PCR test results and
forged travel documents as part of an intensified campaign to stop unauthorized
people – who could be carriers of the virus - from illegally entering
Zamboanga.
Climaco
said charges await those caught in possession of fake RT-PCT test results. She
said Covid-19 protocol enforcement teams have been deployed in the borders and
entry points since the pandemic started in March last year to strictly check on
the accuracy of information in the travel documents of inbound travellers.
“Our
protocol teams at the borders are able to validate the information given them.
That is why we are very particular in the entry of people at the borders. Those
who will submit fake documents or dubious information, particularly on the
required RT-PCR negative test result, will face legal charges for
misrepresentation,” Climaco said.
The
Department of the Interior and Local Government also aired a similar warning
following a series of apprehensions of people carrying forged RT-PCR test
results. The DILG also ordered the police to prosecute individuals who are in
possession of fake RT-PCR test results.
It said
Republic Act No. 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and
Health Events of Public Health Concern Act, provides for penalties of P20,000
but not more than P50,000 or imprisonment of not less than one month but not
more than six months, or both fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the
court.
The 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. (Zamboanga Post, Mindanao Examiner)
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