7 Boracay tourists nabbed over fake swab test results

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — Seven tourists from Luzon have been arrested for allegedly presenting fake reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results upon entering Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan.

The seven, aged between 30 and 40 years old, were part of a group of tourists who arrived on the island last Friday, and who stayed in a hotel in Barangay Balabag, according to Lt. Col. Don de Dios, Boracay police chief.

“The tourists – four from Cavite and one each from Quezon City, Bulacan and Manila – were extracted from the hotel on the same day and brought to the province’s quarantine facility in Kalibo,” De Dios said.

He said he had no idea if the tourists’ companions had decided to go home or continued with the vacation.

Two months ago, the Department of Justice ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the proliferation of fake RT-PCR test results in Boracay.

Last month, the municipal government of Malay declared 122 tourists persona non grata for using fake RT-PCR test results in order to enter the island.