8 Boracay tourists held for faking COVID-19 test results

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — Another group of tourists in Boracay were found to have presented fake reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results.

Four of them were apprehended on Friday and the other four on Saturday.

The tourists presented RT-PCR results, which were supposedly issued by St. Luke’s Medical Center.

“There are people who will test the law. We’re glad that they were caught,” Mayor Floribar Bautista of Malay, Aklan said.

He said he would recommend to the Sangguniang Bayan of Malay to pass a resolution to declare persons found to have presented fake swab test results as persona non grata.

Around 12,000 tourists entered the island in January and at least 8,000 tourists as of Monday.

“It’s taxing on our part to check swab test results of around 400 tourists a day,” Bautista said.

In December, six tourists from Metro Manila who faked their RT-PCR results were arrested.

The Department of Tourism filed charges for falsification of documents against the tourists at the Aklan provincial prosecutor’s office on Feb. 10.