By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Even though the Provincial Legal Office of Negros Occidental has yet to decide if they would file charges against a Negrense who presented fake documents upon his entry to the province, the local government unit of EB Magalona yesterday announced that they will press charges against the traveler.

EB Magalona Mayor Mavin Malacon revealed that the 19-year-old traveler’s fake S-PaSS certificate pointed out that he was a resident of the town’s Barangay Alicante.

However, upon further investigation by the authorities it was revealed that the traveler’s real home address was in fact Cadiz City, and therefore he is not a resident of the said town.

The traveler was intercepted by the provincial government upon his entry to the province after it was discovered that he had presented a fake RT-PCR test result from the molecular laboratory of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) in Mandaluyong City.

The PRC later confirmed that the RT-PCR test was indeed fake as it was using a different font compared to the original one.

Aside from the traveler, the EB Magalona government will also file a separate charge against the traveler’s colleague from Barangay Alicante who asked for the certification claiming he was a close relative.

Charges of violating Republic Act 11332, otherwise known as the “Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act” and falsification of public documents are now being prepared by the LGU./DGB, WDJ