Gwen to trace how beauty queen, boyfriend got past police checkpoints

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police officers who were manning the border checkpoints in the province may need to answer how beauty queen Maria Gigante and her Spanish boyfriend, Javier Castro, were able to sneak into over 80 kilometers of the province last Sunday, May 10, 2020.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said she would inquire with the provincial police why Gigante and Castro, who were arrested on Sunday afternoon for swimming and drinking liquor in a beach in Moalboal on Sunday, were allowed to cross the border checkpoints of at least nine towns when they were not part of exempted personnel that would be allowed to enter the province from Cebu City.

The province of Cebu has earlier closed its borders against nonessential and non-exempted personnel from Cebu City from entering the province since the effectivity of its enhanced community quarantine restrictions last March 30, 2020, due to the high number of COVID-19 cases in Cebu City.

Garcia, quoting the report from the Moalboal police, who apprehended Gigante and Castro, said the beauty queen’s car bore the seal of the House of Representatives and a partylist.

READ: Maria Gigante, Spanish bf face disobedience, ECQ violation charges

Gigante purportedly reasoned that she was doing a survey for the party list to determine what kind of help the communities needed amid the ECQ and the COVID-19 crisis.

“We just wish to investigate why they were able to go pass the checkpoints and to clarify that it is not enough that you see the seal [of the Congress], and mo-claim ka nga you are under orders of a congressman but you are not the congressman yourself,” Garcia said.

WATCH: Police Captain Alvino Enguito, Moalboal police station chief, on arrest of Maria Gigante and BF 

The governor said she would be asking Police Colonel Roderick Mariano, director of the Cebu Police Provincial Office (CPPO), on the composition of the police teams who were assigned at the checkpoints to “clarify” confusions on the persons that might be allowed to enter the province from Cebu City.

Under Garcia’s series of Executive Order on protocols amid ECQ, only Cebuano congressmen are allowed to enter the province.

Garcia said the partylist representative whom Gigante claims to represent was not from Cebu. While Garcia withheld the name of the partylist, she said the Capitol would be informing the lawmaker of the incident./dbs