Malacañang on Tuesday, July 6, warned Filipinos who will fake their vaccination cards for interzonal travel, saying that they will get imprisoned for a long time for falsifying a public document.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque made this warning as the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases relaxed travel restrictions on fully vaccinated individuals.
“Well, unang una, nagbibigay po ako ng babala dun sa mga mamemeke. Iyan po’y isang public document so kapag kayo nameke ng (first of all, I am warning those who falsify. That’s a public document, so if you fake a) vaccination card, that’s falsification of a public document medyo mataas po ang kulong diyan (the imprisonment for that is quite long),” he said.
“Huwag naman po kau magpakaloboso pero (Don’t get thrown into jail because of that but) we have heard concerns expressed by the LGUs pagdating po dito (local government units when it comes to this),” the Palace official added.
Last weekend, the IATF eased travel restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals, including senior citizens.
Under IATF Resolution 124-B, interzonal travelers—or those traveling between different provinces, urbanized cities, and independent component cities under different community quarantine classifications—are now only required to present their vaccination cards instead of a negative RT-PCR test result.
The same rule applies to senior citizens.
READ: Fully vaccinated persons' interzonal travel OK'd
Fully vaccinated individuals are those who are two weeks from their second dose of a vaccine given emergency use authorization or compassionate special permit by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA), or are among those under the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergency use listing.
All travelers, regardless of being fully vaccinated, will still be required to undergo health and exposure screening protocols upon arrival at their destinations.
The move was done to jumpstart the opening of the economy and boost vaccine confidence. Part of this plan is to allow only fully vaccinated individuals to dine in restaurants, travel, and attend entertainment shows.
Also part of the move to reopen the economy is to vaccinate the essential workers or those under the A4 category. Roque attended the ceremonial vaccination for A4 workers in Central Luzon at the Clark Civil Aviation Complex in Clark Freeport Zone.