Arrested beauty queen faces additional charge for fake documents

The beauty queen and her Spanish boyfriend were arrested recently for swimming and drinking on the beach in Moalboal town, southwest Cebu, violating the quarantine restrictions imposed by the government as a precautionary measure against the spread of the coronavirus.

Maria Gigante, 26, and her boyfriend, Javier Filosa Castro, 35, who were arrested for swimming on a beach amid quarantine restrictions, are to face additional charges for allegedly falsifying a document to pass through multiple checkpoints in Cebu.

Police Colonel Roderick Mariano, said they found out that the two lovers did not have an authority from the Public Safety Alliance for Transformation and Rule of Law (PATROL) party-list to distribute relief goods in the southern part of Cebu.

The couple was able to make it past the border control checkpoints after showing a letter of authorization supposedly signed by the PATROL party-list. “Investigators called the party-list group to verify the couple’s claim. It was found out that the group had not issued any authorization letter to them,” Mariano said in an interview.

Police have filed charges against them for violating Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code for resistance and disobedience to a person in authority. Gigante and Castro are still under detention at the Moalboal Police Station. While they already posted P3,000 bail for their violations, the lovers were still waiting for the release order to be issued by the Municipal Circuit Trial Court of Moalboal-Badian-Alcantara-Alegria.