Jail guards arrest woman who presented fake marriage cert to visit high-profile inmate Joavan Fernandez

Virgie Desuyo (seated) was questioned at the CPDRC office. She was arrested for presenting a fake marriage certificate. (CDN PHOTO/IZOBELLE PULGO)

A woman who wanted to avail of a conjugal visit with her ‘husband,’ high profile inmate Joavan Fernandez, was instead arrested for presenting a fake marriage certificate to jail guards on Tuesday morning.

Virgie Desuyo was visiting Joavan, the son of former Talisay City Mayor Socrates Fernandez, at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) when she presented a marriage certificate to the jail guards.

Cautious, PO1 Mark Henry Vertuzado of the Provincial Public Safety Company (PPSC) took the document for a quick water-test and found it was fake.

Vertuzado dropped a small amount of water into the document to see if the color of the ink changes.

“If it changes then it is fake and the document also used a thinner kind of paper unlike original documents that uses thick paper,” Vertudazo told reporters.

A marriage certificate is necessary when availing of conjugal visits with prisoners.

When asked about her relationship with Joavan, Desuyo simply covered her face and said, “di nalang ko motubag ana (I will not answer that).”

Vertuzado said they will be filing a case of falsification of public document against Desuyo.

Joavan, who had figured in several brushes with the law, was sentenced to nearly 80 years in prison after he was convicted in separate cases early this year.

He was meted a 36-year prison term last February for mauling and detaining two vulcanizing shop workers in 2008.

Last May, he was also sentenced to a total of 50 years in prison – 40 years for illegal possession of an explosive and a firearm during the election period in May 2013 and another 10 years for violating the election gun ban during that time.