3 Naia security officers sacked over ‘tanim-bala’
- Nipped in the bud: The dreaded “tanim-bala” scheme had seemingly resurfaced at NAIA, but the three Office for Transportation Security staff allegedly involved in the latest incident have now been fired.
- “The President would not allow our fellow Filipinos, especially tourists, [to be] victimized by this scheme. Those involved should be made liable following a thorough investigation,” Communications Undersecretary and Malacanang Press Officer Claire Castro said on Monday.
- The bullet-planting scheme was first reported in 2012 and gained notoriety in the latter years of the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III.
President Marcos has ordered a thorough investigation into the “tanim-bala” (bullet-planting) incident reported by a senior woman on social media after she claimed to have been victimized by the alleged extortion scheme which used to plague the country’s main gateway.
Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) said the three personnel of the Office for Transportation Security (OTS) who were allegedly involved in that incident had been fired, following a Facebook post by 69-year-old Ruth Adel who claimed that she almost missed her flight on Thursday after being harassed by these officers at Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).
“The President would not allow our fellow Filipinos, especially tourists, [to be] victimized by this scheme. Those involved should be made liable following a thorough investigation,” Communications Undersecretary and Malacanang Press Officer Claire Castro said on Monday.
Earlier that day, Transportation Secretary Vivencio “Vince” Dizon, whose department heads the OTS, said: “Appropriate investigations will be conducted and the proper administrative charges will be filed after the investigation has been conducted. But… we are terminating them (the OTS personnel allegedly involved) already today.”
“We will not stand for any abuse. [This] will be dealt with the same result and the same swift action from us, as mandated and as ordered to us by the President himself. We will not allow this to happen again in the future,” he said.
OTS Administrator Arthur Bisnar, who joined the DOTr’s news conference, said the first thing he did upon learning of the alleged incident was “to get the smirks out of the faces of these unprofessional, abusive and arrogant personnel.”
“We do not condone such actions of OTS officers,” said the agency’s chief, who assumed his post only last Friday.
Bisnar maintained, however, that “there was no ‘tanim-bala’ that happened.” He added that the officers concerned, whom the transportation officials did not identify, had submitted their statements to the OTS.
Dizon, too, said there were really passengers who would bring into the airport cartridges or other such prohibited items as their amulets.
“But that needs to be handled well and properly, and the proper and very clear protocols need to be established so that the rules that will apply will not depend [arbitrarily] on the security personnel stationed there,” he said.
Different versions
In her Facebook post, Adel said she and her family almost missed their flight to Vietnam after OTS personnel claimed they detected a bullet shell in her luggage. But the officers found no such cartridge after inspecting her handbag.
Adel said she had been directed by these officers to join them in their office, but they stepped back after she and her relatives started taking videos. At one point they were caught on video laughing during that episode, which she said left her “traumatized” and “shaken.”
But based on the OTS officers’ account, a group of passengers passed through the X-ray screening machine when they detected an object “that looked like a cartridge case (sic).” Bisnar himself noted that they “did a random follow-up checking on other passengers.”
He acknowledged, however, that there were “irregularities.”
“Our personnel should have done the physical check right [at the screening area]. They really made a mistake because they even chased [Adel and her family] to the boarding gate,” he said.
Past incidents
The bullet-planting scheme was first reported in 2012 and gained notoriety in the latter years of the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III.
On Sept. 17, 2015, a .22-caliber bullet was found in the bag of American missionary Lane Michael White, who denied the bullet was his. But White was charged in court with illegal possession of ammunition and spent six days in jail until he posted bail of P40,000.
Later that month, a .22-caliber bullet was found in the suitcase of American Gemma Kauffman. Another passenger, a wheelchair-bound Filipino American woman, was found with two .22-caliber bullets in her suitcase, but she gave P500 to an OTS officer so she would be cleared to fly home to California.
By November that year, the Inquirer found that an extortion syndicate preying mainly on the elderly and overseas Filipino workers not only planted bullets in the luggage of airline passengers but also questioned their travel papers. In that same month, the Aviation Security Group (Avsegroup) said it had arrested 23 people, mostly women and seniors, since Nov. 1.
But by December, two OTS officers and four Avsegroup personnel were charged with robbery-extortion and graft in connection with the extortion scheme, including the case involving White, who had been cleared by the court and agreed to be one of the complainants.
Aquino’s successor, Rodrigo Duterte, gave “strict instructions” to the DOTr that bullets found from passengers be “simply confiscated and recorded,” with the passenger concerned “allowed to continue with [his or her] flight without any undue delay.”
In 2018, two years into Duterte’s administration, another incident was reported at Naia Terminal 3. But the alleged victim, Kristine Bumanlag-Moran, and her companions were allowed to board their plane even after an airport officer found in her suitcase a 9-mm bullet which she insisted was not hers.
Stop ‘comeback of scheme’
Dizon said he was able to call Adel and her family, who are still on vacation in Vietnam and “profusely apologized” to them.
“I also told them that they should never be afraid to report any wrongdoing to authorities. It should really start from the citizens. What they (Adel) did was very brave and I commended them for it,” the transportation chief said.
New Naia Infra Corp. (NNIC), the private consortium which took over Naia’s operations in September last year, said in a statement: “To prevent similar incidents and strengthen public confidence, NNIC is working with OTS to reinforce security monitoring, proper screening procedures, and transparency in security operations.”
Sen. Grace Poe, for her part, welcomed Dizon’s prompt action on the incident.
“Innocent travelers do not deserve the trauma and trouble caused by rogue airport personnel supposed to provide security, not imperil their safety,” she said. “Concerned authorities must not allow this defanged scheme to make a comeback to pester passengers anew,” Poe added. —WITH REPORTS FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
