The Bacolod Emergency Operations Center is warning the public that selling or buying fake vaccination cards is punishable by imprisonment.
EOC executive director Em Ang said their office is serious in implementing this as they believed that more residents have fake vaccination cards and transacting with unscrupulous sellers through the social media, like Facebook.
Ang said they have turned over to the police the bogus vaccination cards and other evidences seized from members of two Bacolodnon families recently.
The police will be responsible in the filing of appropriate cases, like falsification of public documents, with the violators facing jail terms and fines.
The first family involved a pastor, his wife, and children, who were supposed to travel to Hong Kong. They were found to have obtained fake vaccination cards when they asked for a vaccination certificate at a help desk at SM mall for residents who want to travel abroad.
They admitted to the EOC that they acquired the fake vaccination cards for P700 each, through a Facebook transaction, and signed by a nurse.
The other family said they paid P1,000 for each card.
Ang said all of them admitted to be anti-vaxxers.
She said the EOC believed that more people have obtained fake vaccination certificates, and she advised them to get vaccinated instead.
Ang said they will eventually be caught using the bogus cards since one primary travel requirement is a QR-coded vaccination card that the fake ones do not have.
In December, the City Health Office also discovered an outlet inside a mall manufacturing fake vaccination cards and certificates bearing the counterfeit signatures of vaccinators and doctors. The suspects were already charged.
Under the Revised Penal Code and Republic Act 11332, or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases Law, those found falsifying, tampering, or using fake vaccination cards shall face penalties ranging from a P20,000 to P50,000 fine, or imprisonment of one to six months, or both.– MML
