THE Department of Tourism (DOT) has suspended the accreditation of the Berjaya Hotel in Makati and slapped a hefty fine for its failure to stop a returning overseas Filipino (ROF) from breaking quarantine rules, leaving the premises to party, and returning several days later positive for COVID-19.
The guest, Gwyneth Chua, was identified in social media as “Poblacion Girl” because she was seen in Poblacion, Makati City when she was supposed to be in quarantine at the hotel last December 22.
Chua, who was booked for a mandatory five-day quarantine at the hotel until Dec. 27, returned on the night of Dec. 25, underwent RT-PCR test on Dec. 26, and learned she was positive for the virus the next day.
Authorities later learned she had infected seven close contacts and a secondary contact.
Police filed charges against her, her father, her mother, her boyfriend and five hotel staff last Tuesday.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año yesterday said two policemen will be posted in each of at least 1,000 quarantine hotels in Metro Manila and nearby provinces to ensure returning overseas Filipinos, like Chua, will not skip the required quarantine.
“We’re responsive to the call of the time,” Año said, referring to the directive of President Duterte last Tuesday night that cops be deployed to quarantine hotels.
“We are trying to prevent the rise of the numbers (of COVID-19 cases) and one of the possible causes is people skipping quarantine, especially those coming from yellow (countries); they might be carriers (of the virus),” added Año.
The DOT’s Tourism Regulation, Coordination and Resource Generation approved the penalties recommended by the DOT-National Capital Region. The amount of fine was not divulged but the DOT said it is equivalent to twice the rate of the hotel’s most expensive room.
Año said the deployment of cops to quarantine hotels will be temporary, adding they will be recalled when the COVID-19 situation improves or when cases go down.
“With the instruction of the President, we are now deploying two PNP personnel at every quarantine hotel. And also, I already discussed this with the chief PNP and we are going to implement this starting today,” said Año.
PNP spokesman Col. Roderick Alba said the PNP will comply with the President’s directive.
“Let this be a warning that there is no room for complacency, especially in the handling of the guests. The PNP believes police presence in hotels can be an effective approach in tracking modus such as absentee quarantine,” Alba said.
Año said he hopes the filing of charges against Chua and eight others before the Makati City Prosecutors Office last Tuesday would serve as a lesson to ROFs and the entire public that skipping quarantine is a crime.
“It’s a law, they may be thinking this is just an ordinary quarantine protocol. You are violating the law, it’s a criminal law, you will be a criminal if you are found violating it (quarantine protocol),” Año said.
Another ROF who also recently skipped quarantine upon arrival from the US tested negative for the virus but Año said the PNP will continue its investigation against her for breaching quarantine protocols.
“She is negative but that’s immaterial because she violated quarantine protocol… The act of violating quarantine, that’s the thing matter we are looking into,” said Año.
