No jail time but ‘Poblacion Girl’ slapped with P20,000 fine

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — “Poblacion Girl” Gwyneth Anne Chua was slapped with the minimum fine of P20,000 on Monday after she pleaded guilty in court to violating mandatory quarantine protocols and apologized for her actions.

No jail time was given to Chua, who incurred the public’s ire when she left quarantine shortly after arriving in the country from the United States on Dec. 22, 2021, to meet with friends at a restaurant and restobar in Barangay Poblacion, Makati City.

She tested positive for COVID-19 five days later and 11 of her close contacts were also found to be infected.

In her appearance before the Makati City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 128, Chua pleaded guilty to violating Republic Act No. 11332, or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act.

She also apologized to the court, according to City Prosecutor Rafael Esguerra. Those charged with violating RA 11332 face a fine ranging from P20,000 to P50,000 and/or imprisonment for one month to six months, or both, depending on the court’s discretion.

On the other hand, the case against Esteban Gatbonton, a security guard at Berjaya Makati Hotel where Chua was supposed to be quarantined, would continue as he pleaded not guilty to helping her leave the establishment.

The charges against four other hotel employees were earlier dropped for lack of probable cause while the complaint against Chua’s parents and her boyfriend was also dismissed due to insufficient evidence.

Her father had fetched her from the hotel a few minutes after she checked in on Dec. 22. Chua then met with friends at two establishments in Barangay Poblacion the following day before she returned to Berjaya on Dec. 25, accompanied by her mother.

As for the hotel, the Department of Tourism penalized it with a fine of P13,200 for the quarantine breach on top of a two-month suspension of operations.

COVID cases dropping

The Department of Health (DOH), meanwhile, reported that although the number of daily COVID-19 cases was decreasing along with severe and critical cases, hospitals were starting to fill up due to non-COVID cases, including primary illnesses such as hypertension, arthritis, and diabetes.

As new cases declined for the third consecutive week, the average daily detected cases now stand at 2,449, compared to 2,752 the previous week.

Of the 17,145 laboratory-confirmed new cases last week, 40 were severely or critically ill. This brought the current number of severe and critical COVID-19 patients to 768, compared to 807 the previous week.

However, 354 more COVID-19 deaths were reported, which raised the official death toll to 62,011 out of 3.89 million confirmed cases.

According to the DOH, cases in Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon were on a “slow downward trend” while cases in the Visayas and Mindanao had plateaued.

The number of severe and critical admissions for COVID-19 at the national level has also been at a slow decline since early August.

While hospital bed occupancy for COVID-19 cases remained at low risk, DOH officer in charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said that hospitals were filling up with non-COVID cases.

“Our hospitals are having a very hard time because even primary care cases are going straight to the hospitals as walk-ins,” she said. Vergeire was referring to common illnesses treated by primary care doctors such as upper respiratory tract infection, hypertension, arthritis, diabetes, headaches, ear infection, back pain, dermatitis, and bladder infections.

—WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH 

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