Boracay Halloween party probed over alleged COVID-19 violations

In this photo taken on October 1, 2020, residents swim at a beach in Borocay, Malay town, Aklan. Authorities eased restrictions in the world-famous Boracay on October 1, allowing local tourists to visit the island after more than six months of quarantine as coronavirus infections levelled off

MANILA – Officials are investigating a Halloween party in Boracay for allegedly violating physical distancing and face mask protocols to combat COVID-19 infection, its mayor said Thursday.

Organizers of the Halloween party were fined P5,000, said Mayor Frolibar Bautista. Two foreigners who donned Philippine National Police uniforms as costumes were also penalized.

“Meron kasing organizers na dinala dun sa private house, dun sila nagparty-party sa Halloween kaya di agad nakita. Sa area na malayo sa beach so di siya madali makita,” he told ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.

(Organizers led partygoers to a private house far from the beach for a Halloween party that’s why we weren’t able to immediately detect it.

The Department of Tourism said it was investigating the incident while the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force was mulling the local government’s possible liability.

The tourist island remains free of COVID-19 since March, when it recorded 1 case due to a healthworker contracting the virus, the mayor said.

ABS-CBN NEWS

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