It has been over a year since they sought ways of getting on a boat to escape the scourge of the coronavirus disease which unfortunately has Cebu cowering in fear. It is just that the strict travel regulations imposed for travelers to Bohol has made crossing to Bohol a heavy burden for Boholanos who work in Cebu, earning a little over their daily needs.
"We don't know yet when we can finally go home, we have lost our jobs and are now forced to accept odd jobs, if only to survive," a production line worker in one of Cebu's electronics manufacturing establishments inside the industrial zone in Mandaue posted in her facebook account.Such were the times when first among the requirements to be allowed to travel was a negative COVID test results through Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), considered the gold standard for determining COVID affectation in an individual.
Moreover, the test result has to be obtained 72 hours before one travels to Bohol, any substantial delay in getting the boat ticket, invalidates the test results having lapsed in time, and the individual possible exposed again to the virus in the last few days.
That time too, an RT PCR, costs between P 4,500 to P10,000, depending on how immediate one needs such result for travel requirement.
"It's too expensive and is way beyond our paying capacity, for us who are minimum wage earners and the cost of living in Cebu, especially with the pandemic, its almost impossible for us to get the test results, a Cortes resident who digs in septic tanks if only to secure food," shared.Other than the RT PCR result, inter-provincial travel then demands one getting a Medical Clearance Authority, which can be obtained after an arduous process of getting a Barangay Certification stating that the traveler has hot had any COVID symptoms and that he has not left the barangay in a travel to COVID hot areas.
This Certification in a document is necessary for one to get the Medical Clearance Certificate, from the Rural Health Unit of City Healt Officer, ascertaining that the traveler can actually travel and is no COVID risk.
The Medical Clearance Certificate as also an important document that backs the individual's Travel Authority which would be issued by the local COVID SHIELD team led by the Philippine National Police who mans the quarantine control points.
"Getting the documents entail going out of home quarantine, which also exposes us to the virus, it is dangerous and would entail additional costs," adds another Boholano student marooned in Cebu.
Then the traveler would also need to coordinate with the Local Government Unit of destination so a space for in the isolation facility can be allocated and the local health authorities can be alerted for the daily health monitoring needed when one is in isolation.
"Homing has never been as difficult, we could not stop from wondering if tourists are more important than us getting home?" asks a Boholano who aired his exasperation online.
That was when tourists can get to Bohol as long as they come in big groups, and travel in a bubble.
That however was history.
Recently, as opening the economy has become a matter of survival, Bohol, in consonance with the national regulations, has ruled out most of the travel requirements except the RT PCR and the Certificate of Confirmation and Endorsement by the LGU of destination.
"Going home has never been easier in the time of the pandemic," is the common remark from the stream of returning residents who took the opportunity when the travel protocols were loosened, while the Certificate of Confirmation and Endorsement can be done by a few calls for coordination, the RT PCR remains a big hurdle.
Even when the government has put up a price regulation for the RT PCR services in government and private medical facilities accredited by the Department of Health, either the turn-around period when one nervously awaits for the test results to come out uses up the 72 hours regulation for a valid result, or the steep price of getting the RT PCR from private laboratories are the only available option.
"We have heard that some results from the laboratories come out after 48 hours, this gives us barely enough time to find the money to but the tickets and to book on the boat, which is not frequent.
The boat schedules have been affected by the lessened passengers," admits a returning Boholano, who came in with his wife and three kids, who decided to finally resettle and start a new life in Tubigon.
Such were the hurdles one has to skip over and surmount, if he wishes to cross to Bohol.
"Yes, it is difficult but from our end, we also have to make sure that these returning residents could not innocently bring in the virus and start a local outbreak," explains San Miguel town mayor and former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) national director Atty Virgilio Mendez.
Mendez, whose present achievements stemmed from hard-work and surviving a life of poverty as working student and being self sufficient until he became a lawyer and a top investigator, has singled out a falsified document brought in by a returning resident from Manila.
"Delikado, if it happens all the time, we would never know if the returning LSI is really safe and COVID free," he adds.
His concern however apparently was not isolated.
"I saw from our group chat with the mayors of Bohol that the same falsified documents were also noted in Getafe and Buenavista," the mayor-investigator revealed in a radio interview.
Knowing how dangerous can allowing the entry of unwitting COVID carriers showing fake RT PCR results, and how they would have to spend for this, the mayor could not let this pass.
In these times when we are strictly ordering everyone to stay at home, some opportunistic people just have no conscience to victimize the weak and endanger us, he said.
Nobody could actually tell how long the scam has been victimizing Boholanos and how many have used the same modus to obtain a travel passage, nevertheless, Atty. Mendez knew he has to act on this.
As a former NBI director and still having a thunderous clout over his past agency, Atty. Mendez wrote to NBI 7 about the widespread selling of falsified COVID test results by RT-PCR to passengers bound for Bohol.
"These negative RT PCR results are being offered to passengers bound for Bohol, particularly for Tagbilaran and Tubigon at Pier 1 and Pier 3, in the amount of P1,500.00," the mayor told the NBI 7.
With the information, the NBI in Region 7, set into motion its surveillance and verification team, to confirm the information.
In coordination with Cebu Ports Authority through Commissioner Mike Lopez, the NBI then sat down with the CPA, who was also outraged at the illegal activity done in its premises.
A day later after receiving the information from then NBI Director Mendez, NBI 7 and CPA rolled an entrapment operation at about 4:30.
Arrested at the vicinity of Pier 1, after the operation was a certain Rogelio Sumalinog Nebres and inside his shop nearly a kilometer away in Colon Street across Oriente Building was Rakim Sultan Busara.
Nebres was the pier pointman while Busara connived in computer-editing RT PCR test results to suit the identity of the client, and for the sum of P1,500, the document becomes the pass for a traveller to cross to Bohol.
"Rogelio Sumalinog Nebres and Rakin Sultan Busara were caught in conspiracy with one another in creating a negative RT PCR result using computer software Adobe Photoshop and demanding the amount of P1,500 in exchange for the falsified documents," according to a press material from the NBI7.
With the crime, the NBI recommends estafa through falsification of public documents which can be penalized under Article 315 in relation to Article 171 and 172 and Article 8 (conspiracy) of the Revised Penal Code in relation to section 6 of Republic Act 10175 otherwise called the Cybercrime Prevention Act for 2012.
When Boholanos who worked hard for the money are forced to come home and an offer for a faster travel, we could not blame them, but then, if they in fact are COVID carriers, these men who make its their source of money, should be made to face their illegal activities, an NBI agent in Bohol asserted. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)
25Cecilio Ojoy Tolop, Rey Balatayo and 23 others
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