Raps Filed Versus ‘Poblacion Girl’ And Her Parents, Others

Police have filed charges against Gwyneth Anne Chua, infamously known as “Poblacion Girl,” and eight other persons for the breach of COVID-19 protocols at the Berjaya Makati Hotel last month.

Agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-National Capital Region (CIDG-NCR) filed a complaint against Chua and other respondents before the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 4, for violating provisions of Republic Act (RA) No. 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act.

Apart from Chua, the CIDG-NCR also included in the charge sheet her parents Allan Chua and Gemma Leonardo-Chua, after investigation revealed that they connived in getting her out of the hotel, where she was supposed to undergo the five-day mandatory quarantine.

Chua arrived at the hotel on Dec. 22 at around 11:23 p.m., but her father took her out at around 11:40 p.m. They left the hotel on board a sports utility vehicle.

She socialized with her friends at the Mijo Comfort Food and Kampai bar, both located in Makati’s Barangay Poblacion, on Dec. 23.

Police investigators found out that Chua’s mother brought her back to the hotel on Dec. 25 at around 9 p.m.

“It was like the parents tolerated the act of violating,” CIDG director Maj. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro said in Filipino and English in an interview over dzBB.

Col. Randy Glenn Silvio, who heads the CIDG-NCR field office, identified the other respondents as Rico Atienza, Chua’s boyfriend, and Berjaya Makati Hotel employees namely, resident manager Gladiolyn Biala, assistant resident manager Den Sabayo, security manager Tito Arboleda, security/doorman Esteban Gatbonton and front desk counter personnel Hannah Araneta.

Chua, a returning overseas Filipino (ROF) from the United States, gained infamy after she allegedly flaunted her disregard of quarantine protocols.

She tested positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 26 and is currently staying in one of the isolation facilities in Metro Manila.

Government officials had earlier said she may have infected her companions.

Among the pieces of evidence that the CIDG gathered are testimonies of witnesses and footage of closed-circuit television cameras showing that Chua was outside the quarantine hotel.

Ferro urged people who were infected by Chua to file a complaint before the CIDG which they could refer to prosecutors.

“Let this be a lesson for each and every one of our fellow Filipinos. The pandemic is still at bay and we still need to be cautious in our actions,” he said.

No persona non grata declaration

Meanwhile, Makati City Mayor Abby Binay said the local government would not be declaring Gwyneth Chua as persona non grata and instead urged individuals whom she infected and business establishments which were affected by her breach to press charges against her.

In response to calls to declare Chua persona non grata in the city, Binay said it would only cast undeserved attention and that it would be more fitting to have those infected and affected by her breach file civil cases for damages.

“The level of persona non grata should be for someone who really deserves it… It is a solicited advice to all those affected because of her, the businesses: I suggest you file a civil case for damages,” Binay said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government said 12 of over 30 people who came in contact with Chua had tested positive for COVID-19.

The city government of Makati said four of these people were employees of a bar Chua went to during her breach.

“The bars at Poblacion specifically have been the most affected because of COVID. It is only when we were Alert Level 2 that they were able to open. For the last two years, they were not allowed to open,” Binay said.

The mayor added that the local government would be filing a complaint against Berjaya Makati Hotel, which allowed Chua to walk in and out freely despite quarantine protocols, but said the city is currently focused on controlling the COVID-19 caseload and dealing with contact tracing and hospitalization of carriers.

“The city is more focused on the number of patients that got infected. That’s really more of our concern rather than, you know, the prosecution can come after. It’s not going to go any-where. It’s not like it’s an immediate concern,” she said.

Binay, however, stressed that while the city is dealing with the surge, the local government still has an ongoing investigation on Berjaya Makati Hotel.

“There are several options that we can do. We can suspend their business permit. The Department of Tourism can come up with a recommendation as well,” she said.

As of Tuesday, active COVID-19 cases in the city had increased by at least 300 percent in just a week, with over 300 active cases recorded.

Binay said that although most of the 311 active cases are vaccinated, people should still get vaccinated.

She announced that the city has allowed walk-in booster vaccination for non-residents.

“You just have to register first in the portal since we don’t have your record. If you don’t register online, you will have to register onsite,” she said.

Random inspections

Amid these developments, police have started random inspections of quarantine hotels in Metro Manila.

Police officers visited several quarantine hotels in Muntinlupa and Makati on Monday based on photographs made public by the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday.

Acting on the instructions of Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, PNP chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos has ordered police units to conduct random visits to quarantine hotels and other business establishments following the alleged breach by Chua.

“These inspection rounds will be unannounced and shall be conducted randomly to determine which establishments are compliant with public health protocols. Let this be a warning that there is no room for complacency during this health emergency,” Carlos said in a statement.

“We believe that police visibility will serve the purpose to monitor how the quarantine hotels are accommodating their guests who are required to isolate while waiting for the completion of the required number of quarantine days,” he added.

Based on the government’s guidelines, businesses can operate in areas under Alert Level 3 if their workers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

They are also allowed to cater to fully vaccinated clients and use only 30-percent capacity for indoor setup and 50 percent for outdoors or al fresco.

The PNP is coordinating with other law enforcement agencies in the wake of reports of alleged under-the-table connivance between errant guests and hotel management to make it appear they are strictly following quarantine protocols but are actually skipping the process.

Syndicate behind quarantine breaches?

Thinking that Poblacion Girl’s alleged breach of quarantine regulations might just be the tip of the iceberg, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct a thorough probe and determine if a syndicate is behind the modus of offering quarantine exemptions and privileges to those arriving in the country.

Guevarra ordered NBI officer-in-charge Eric Distor on Tuesday “to conduct a thorough investigation of possible willful violations of mandatory quarantine regulations, starting from the arrival area in our international airports up to facility/hotel-based and home-based quarantines.”

In an interview over dzBB, Guevarra said they are suspecting that there is a possibility that the incident involving Poblacion Girl is not an isolated case, and that there may be people who are offering deals to those arriving in the country.

“These are highly probable situations that might be happening, but they have not yet been discovered… I believe that what happened in Makati was just the tip of the iceberg,” he added.

One possible scenario is that the airport might be the starting point of their racket, and that instead of bringing the new arrival to a quarantine facility, the person would be allowed to go home.

Guevarra said they are also not discounting the possibility that there may be accredited quarantine hotels or facilities that may have their own internal arrangements with their guests, who just arrived from other countries.

They might allow their guests to leave their hotel rooms or shorten their quarantine stay, which is against quarantine protocols.

He warned that hotels found violating quarantine regulations might face administrative sanctions as well as cancellation of their business permits and eventually, the closure of their busi-nesses.

The hotel’s executives would also be faulted for their negligence, while their employees might be given disciplinary action by management.

“They are under the supervision of government agencies. This is a public health issue, so they cannot just disregard it. It is not only the person who would be affected, but there might be people who might get infected because of negligence and for disregarding the requirements of the law. This is a public health matter, so we should be careful,” the justice secretary said.

“There will be a comprehensive investigation,” he added.

Guevarra also admitted that it is possible that those behind this illegal operation are not afraid to commit the offense because of the paltry penalties imposed against violators of RA 11332.

Violators would only be required to pay a fine of between P20,000 to P50,000, or an imprisonment of one to six months.

Guevarra said it would be up to members of Congress to decide if they would like to revisit the law and amend the penalties.

Stiffer penalties

In a related development, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri on Tuesday filed a bill seeking to impose stiffer penalties against quarantine violators.

Zubiri filed Senate Bill 2470, which seeks to amend RA 11332 to identify quarantine violations under its prohibited acts and set commensurate penalties for said violations.

“As we feared, our COVID cases keep going higher and higher over the past week. But this is not just from the Christmas rush. For all we know, there are many other quarantine facilities and individuals who do not follow our health and quarantine protocols and are spreading COVID coming from other countries,” Zubiri said in Filipino and English.

“We’re filing this bill so we can take these irresponsible individuals and entities to task in the future,” he said.

The bill amends Section 9 or the Prohibited Acts of RA 11332 to include persons engaging in “non-compliance, evasion or skipping off on mandatory quarantine or isolation” as well indi-viduals or entities who aid said persons, “such as owners, 

officials or employees of quarantine and isolation facilities, government officials and employees, or acted as an accomplice in non-compliance.”

The bill also sets a fine for violators of not less than P500,000 but not more than P1 million, or imprisonment of one to six years.

Further, if another person contracts the communicable disease from the quarantine violator and it leads to the person’s permanent incapacity or death, the bill sets a penalty of P1 million along with payment of civil damages or imprisonment of six to 12 years. – With Neil Jayson Servallos, Evelyn Macairan, Paolo Romero