Travelers warned: False info can land you in jail

Foreign travelers arriving at MCIA on this February 6, 2020 file photo are seen filling up the health declaration forms. | CDN Digital Photo by Morexette Marie B. Erram

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu Provincial government has warned dishonest travelers arriving in Cebu that they may be imprisoned for one year or pay a fine of P5,000 if they will be caught putting false information on their health declaration forms.

Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said this after health officials earlier reported seven South Koreans from Daegu City went missing for at least five hours  from the establishment where they were supposedly staying.

“Any false declaration shall subject the passenger to charges in pursuant to the Provincial Board Ordinance that penalizes anyone providing and circulating false information in relation to COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019),” said Garcia.

Provincial Board Ordinance No. 2020-02 seeks to penalize anyone spreading false and unverified information related to COVID-19, including those who will be caught misdeclaring their arrival forms.

It was passed on February 10.

The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH – 7) on February 28 disclosed to members of the media that they were unable to locate 7 of the 26 South Koreans who arrived in Cebu from Daegu City last February 25.

They were the last batch of South Koreans, who flew in from the COVID-19-hit city as the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) imposed travel ban there, and the entire North Gyeongsang province.

Before hotel operators and owners tracked them five hours later after DOH-7 made the announcement, authorities were suspecting that the tourists misdeclared some information on their health arrival cards.

Health declaration forms

The Capitol, Bureau of Quarantine in Central Visayas (BOQ-7), and airport authorities at the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) require all travelers, both from domestic and international flights, arriving in Cebu to fill up and submit their health declaration forms.   

Garcia said officials from BOQ-7 and GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corporation (GMCAC), the private co-managing body of MCIA, have agreed on Capitol’s proposal to revise the declaration forms.

She said that travelers must now declare the places they had been recently shortly before landing in Cebu.

The updated health declaration forms were immediately distributed on February 28.

“These declaration forms are collected by the airline crew before the plane lands on Cebu. After which, they are then turned over to the Capitol,” Garcia said.

Garcia also said the provincial government was planning to create a separate unit to investigate possible misdeclaration on health declaration forms which might be composed of the BOQ and the Bureau of Immigration./dbs