THE Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is fast becoming a national embarrassment, thanks to the way it is run and the proliferation of bad eggs among the various government personnel working there.
There was a time during the previous Duterte administration that the “tanim bala” scandal was a huge problem. Some airport personnel in charge of the X-ray machines were found to have inserted or “planted” live ammunition in the bags of unsuspecting passengers.
These victims were then pressured to come across with grease money to avoid the inconvenience of being investigated. This racket had been going on for months before the government was able to catch and punish the perpetrators.
After a couple of years, the rackets at the airport have resurfaced, said Sen. Grace Poe.
Last Monday, Feb. 27, she reported another incident at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport that was caught on camera by a foreign tourist and had become viral on social media.
‘Both Poe and Aplasca noted that President Marcos Jr., the Department of Tourism, and the whole government have been inviting tourists and investors to come to the Philippines but these corrupt airport personnel tarnish the reputation of the country, driving away visitors from abroad.’
Poe cited an incident involving Piyawat Gunlayaprasit, a Thai tourist who lost about ¥20,000 or about P8,000 when his baggage went through the X-ray machines at the NAIA Terminal 2. When the Thai passenger complained that he lost his money to one of the airport officers, he was told there was no security camera footage to show proof of what had happened.
This is highly questionable, since there are many CCTV cameras around at the airport terminal, the senator thought. Either the security system was not working or the airport personnel would not want to show the footage.
It was just a stroke of luck that another Thai passenger was able to take a video of the incident on her phone, thus confronting the NAIA personnel with evidence of their shenanigan. This forced the security screening officer to return the money. The latter was seen handing the money back to the passenger, all captured on video.
“When I saw that video, it was really infuriating and embarrassing. This is another problem on the reputation of NAIA, of our airports,” said Poe, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Public Services. The senator also recalled that two months ago, one of her office staff members also lost an Apple cellphone during a baggage inspection at the same airport terminal.
Following the latest incident, five screening officers of the Office of Transportation Security (OTS) have been relieved from duty and criminal and administrative charges will be filed against them, said OTS Administrator Ma.O Aplasca.
Senator Poe likened to “magic” the way valuables just disappear at the baggage inspection and X-ray areas, adding this is theft and those brazenly doing it should be held responsible.
“We need high-resolution CCTV footage, so we can see who are involved. We know that not every airport personnel is a scalawag, we need to distinguish the bad eggs from the good ones and exact accountability,” Poe stressed.
Both Poe and Aplasca noted that President Marcos Jr., the Department of Tourism, and the whole government have been inviting tourists and investors to come to the Philippines but these corrupt airport personnel tarnish the reputation of the country, driving away visitors from abroad.
It would need more than a Senate inquiry into the problem to solve this, with the Executive department and the judiciary leading the efforts to find a solution.
