Pasay City Police arrested a 35-year-old woman Wednesday afternoon after allegedly using the name and ID of a nurse to sell the vaccine against COVID-19.
The real nurse, Dayrelle Esteban, 35, met the suspect alias Mich in the entrapment operation at a restaurant in Pasay City.
Esteban handed the suspect P50,000 as a downpayment to purchase more than 50 vaccines for P110,000 or more than P2,000 per vaccine.
According to Esteban, Mich offered him vaccines from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and SinoVac, and a downpayment is needed to release the stock.
The supply allegedly came from a private hospital in Makati and a government hospital in Quezon City.
During the weekend, someone texted his security agency guard, who had previously talked to the suspect.
According to the nurse, Mich pretended to be an employee of a private hospital and sent the guard a copy of Esteban’s professional ID and other photographs as proof that she was it.
The suspect used a copy of the ID in Esteban’s Facebook post last year.
Fake nurse caught selling COVID-19 vaccines in Pasay
Esteban presented to pretend to be a staff of the guard company to transact with the suspect.
In the end, no vaccine was recorded from Mich, so the police suspected that she was just cheating to make money.
Mich’s live-in partner, alias Gelo, 28, was also arrested as a possible accomplice but insisted that he did not know what his partner did.
Mich’s defense, she just tried to do it because of finding a way to make money.
She used to be a maid who lost her job for 3 months. Gelo also has no job.
Mich will face charges of estafa or swindling and identity theft under the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
Over the past week, the Department of Health and the police have warned the public not to take advantage of those who illegally sell the vaccine.
Meanwhile, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen Guillermo Eleazar of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has launched a manhunt operation against those behind the smuggling and illegal sale of COVID-19 vaccines.
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