AN INBOUND passenger was collared Friday at the Francisco Bangoy International Airport for submitting a bogus reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test result showing she was negative of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov2), the virus that caused the coronavirus pandemic.
Major Ronnel Tesorero, assistant chief of the Aviation Security Unit 11, the passenger, Vanessa Thelmo, 23, a resident of Labangal, General Santos City is facing a cse for violation of Article 172 in relation to Article 171 Revised Penal Code.
Thelmo, who was charged Saturday through summary inquest procedure, came from Manila.
Tesorero said that upon arriving, Thelmo presented a test result conducted on her by the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Molecular Laboratory when an officer of the City Health Office asked her.
However, upon scanning the quick response code of the test result, the officer found out that it was done on August 13. Passengers are only allowed to present results that are taken 72 hours or later upon arrival at the airport.
The passenger was then sent to the quarantine area near the airport where a test was made on her. She will stay there until her test result was released which turned out to be negative of the virus.
She has since been detained at the Sasa Police Office.
