SPEAKER Martin Romualdez yesterday joined Sen. Grace Poe in calling on Transportation Sec. Jaime Bautista to fire all Office for Transportation Security (OTS) personnel assigned at the airport after some of them were accused of stealing from a Thai tourist, an incident which he said was “very embarrassing and alarming.”
Romualdez has asked for a meeting this week at the House of Representatives with officials of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to discuss the incident “which has become a national embarrassment.”
“Nakakahiya at nakakagalit (It’s embarrassing and infuriating),” Romualdez said. “Paano tayo makakahikayat ng mga turista sa ating bansa kung mga magnanakaw ang ilang mga nagbabantay sa airport natin (How can we attract tourists when there are thieves guarding our airport)?”
Poe earlier said placing erring personnel on preventive suspension is just a standard operating procedure (SOP) while an investigation is ongoing, but those found liable should be meted with harsher punishments like dismissal from service, aside from being held criminally and administratively liable.
“Attracting tourists should be a priority, and an incident such as this does not help us in encouraging visitors to our country,” Romualdez stressed.
The Speaker said he would recommend to Bautista the replacement of all OTS personnel at the airport with honest and professional ones, stressing that only workers with impeccable or good records should be allowed to re-apply for their posts.
“It sounds a bit extreme, but circumstances call for extreme measures. If government personnel commit criminal acts against foreign visitors the minute they landed at the airport, it says a lot about our country. So, it needs to be addressed sternly,” he said.
When re-applying, Romualdez said, qualifications of OTS personnel should be subjected to the highest standards of public service and, if necessary, subject them to a lie detector test and re-training as new recruits.
A video clip which went viral on social media sites showed a male transit Thai tourist bound for Japan was reportedly robbed by the OTS agent of some Y20,000 equivalent to around P8,000 while at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2.
In a press release, the OTS said the video purportedly showed “a departing foreign national requesting the Security Screening Officer (SSO) to return the money taken from him… which the latter was seen handing over to the passenger.”
