By Jayson Aucensillo/PIA
The local government continues to keep an eye on individuals who are not following the imposed local directives upon entry to the city.
The city remains watchful and exerts its best efforts to protect the city’s borders and entry points to ensure that inbound travelers are with their authentic travel requirements such as the RT-PCR negative test results and are registered online through the Safe, Swift, and Smart Passage (S-PaSS) permit.
“We are implementing these policies because we want to protect the city and the neighboring provinces from the threats of COVID-19 disease most especially the most dangerous Delta variant,” Zambo City Mayor Beng Climaco said during the city’s virtual briefing held recently.
Recently, police authorities in the city arrested two (2) individuals for allegedly facilitating entry and helping inbound travelers to slip through the quarantine control checkpoints in Barangay Licomo, without pertinent documents in exchange for P3,000.
Individuals who have been arrested were Nuruddin Samsuddin aka “Piolo”, 38 years old and Rodrigo Maquilang, aka “Diego”, 52, all habal-habal drivers and residents of San Pedro, Tungawan, Zamboanga Sibugay.
The suspects are now under the custody of Police Station 1 for proper disposition and filing of appropriate charges.
Also this month (August), the Local Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) intercepted eight plane passengers who presented fake swab test results at the Zamboanga City Airport.
The passengers were immediately deported to their respective place of origins at their own expense and the city issued citation tickets for the payment of administrative fines in the maximum amount of P5,000.
As per the data, there were already 23 passengers attempting to enter the city with falsified COVID-19 test results.
With these occurrences, the city calls for the cooperation of the inbound travelers to comply with all the necessary requirements and follow the legal process to avoid complications.
“The government is doing everything to address this current situation (pandemic) and with your help, together, we can overcome this,” Mayor Climaco said. (RVC/JRA/PIA9-Zamboanga City/With reports from Zambo City-Public Information Office) -rir
