ILOILO CITY – Four tourists from Metro Manila tried to enter world-famous Boracay Island in Malay town, Aklan province Tuesday night with tampered test results they are negative for coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Police Lt. Col. Don Dicksie De Dios, Malay PNP chief, confirmed the four tourists were apprehended at Tabon Port in mainland Malay past 6 p.m. of June 8.
“They were not able to enter Boracay Island,” De Dios told Manila Bulletin in a phone interview.
The tourists came from Negros Island and then travelled to Panay Island and tried to proceed to Boracay.
According to De Dios, port authorities found that the four people tampered with the dates of the COVID-19 swab results.
The four tourists were then taken to the isolation facility in Kalibo town, the provincial capital of Aklan. They will undergo COVID-19 swab tests.
Similar to the seven tourists caught last week, the four new tourists will face charges for tampering public documents and violating Republic Act No. 1332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act.
Since Boracay reopened to domestic tourists since October 2020, visitors are required to submit either swab test results or saliva-based test results they are negative for COVID-19.
But De Dios reiterated the test results must be from a laboratory that has accreditation from the Department of Health (DOH).