Tessie’s office pass used to fetch Laarni

Airport authorities said yesterday former actress Laarni Enriquez, a mistress of deposed President Joseph Estrada, used an access pass issued to the office of Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta to bypass regular airport procedures and sneak herself into the country on Feb. 18.

Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) general manager Edgardo Manda confirmed that former NAIA official Jake Acuña had used the access pass issued to Oreta’s chief of staff to spirit Enriquez out of the airport terminal.

Oreta, however, denied that Acuña was ever her chief of staff and that she had anything to do with Enriquez’s surreptitious return to the country.

In statement faxed to The STAR yesterday, Oreta’s chief of staff Teresita Samson-Castillo said Acuña was never a member of Oreta’s senatorial staff but admitted that she knew Acuña as one of those who campaigned for her during the 1998 elections.

"Whatever Mr. Acuña did at the airport yesterday, he did of his own accord," said the statement.

Acuña, executive assistant of former NAIA general manager Antonio Gana, allegedly met Enriquez as she disembarked from a Continental Airlines flight from Guam and used irregular exit points to spirit Enriquez out of the terminal.

"Definitely, there is a conspiracy to hide the arrival of Enriquez," Manda told reporters, adding charges of human smuggling would be filed against Acuña, who earlier denied sneaking Enriquez out of the airport without proper documentation.

However, footage from the closed-circuit television cameras at the clearing area of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) clearly showed Acuña and a certain Mr. Puyat assisting Enriquez in clearing her baggage through Customs counter No. 11, Manda said .

The footage shows Customs examiner Patricia Castro signing the baggage declaration form and handing it to Acuña, he added.

Manda said Acuña used the pass issued to Oreta because his own pass was canceled by the new airport management but he could not ascertain if Acuña is now Oreta’s chief of staff.

Because of the security breach, Manda has ordered the revocation of all NAIA "official business" (OB) access passes, except those issued to foreign embassies and missions.

"There are hundreds of ‘OB’ passes issued by the NAIA authorities during the previous administration," Manda said, adding the abuse of such passes constitute a serious airport security breach.

Manda has ordered that restricted areas of both NAIA’s Terminal I and II would be "sanitized" today and no person will be granted access except with special permission.

Earlier, Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo fined Continental Airlines P50,000 for allegedly failing to account for one of its passengers.

Domingo said immigration computer records did not include the name of Enriquez, indicating that she did not pass through the immigration arrival counters to have her passport stamped as required of all passengers.

Enriquez left for the United States via Hong Kong on Jan. 11, evading a subpoena for her to appear at Estrada’s impeachment trial.

The former actress was also linked to an attempt of an alleged Estrada family friend, identified as Juancho Mendiola, to smuggle some P6 million in cash out of the country.

Mendiola was scheduled to take the same Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight for Hong Kong with Enriquez. The flight was delayed for almost two hours because Mendiola refused to board without a traveling bag that was later found to contain the money.

Estradas still in control?

Enriquez’ apparent ease in getting her way at the airport has prompted former Speaker and senatorial candidate Manuel Villar Jr. to sarcastically suggest that Estrada was still in control of the airport.

Villar said something must be wrong with incumbent NAIA officials when an Estrada mistress arrives in the country and is fetched out of the airport by an assistant of the former airport manager who is a protégé of the ousted president.

"They must still be in control of the airport," he said, adding that airport officials should have been on the lookout for any Estrada mistress or crony so they can inform the authorities.

He stressed the fact that Enriquez entered the country without passing through immigration does not speak well of how the country’s premier airport is being run.

A group of lawyers also raised concern over the security breach and urged Domingo to investigate Enriquez.

In a letter to Domingo, the Concerned Lawyers for Moral and Effective Leadership (Clamor), led by Dennis Funa, said Domingo should determine if Enriquez had violated any law and charge her if necessary.

Funa said law-abiding citizens are alarmed with the special treatment accorded to Enriquez who is only a mistress of a deposed president.

"If one can be exempted then everyone should be exempted. If no laws were violated if one evades the immigration counters, then what’s the use of everyone falling in line there? Everyone should just ignore immigration officers," Funa said.

The lawyers’ group contrasted the incident to the recent departure of presidential daughter Lourdes "Luli" Arroyo who fell in line like ordinary citizens when she left recently for the US. — With reports from Butch Quejada, Jess Diaz, Jose Rodel Clapano