House probe on ‘laglag bala’ modus pushed

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker on Monday filed a resolution calling for a House inquiry on the “laglag bala” extortion practice at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Valenzuela Rep. Win Gatchalian filed the resolution following reports that some passengers experienced the laglag bala extortion practice or the “tanim bala” initiated by some personnel of NAIA where airport officers allegedly plant bullets in passengers’ baggage and extort money from them in exchange of a settlement.

“This so-called 'laglag bala' extortion racket is a disgrace to NAIA as an institution even though only a handful of its personnel could be directly involved in such nefarious activity. This has to be investigated to ensure that this kind of condemnable act is permanently stopped,” Gatchalian said.

Gatchalian said that NAIA is a window to many tourists and balikbayans and experiencing such incidents tells a lot about the Philippines and its people.

On Sunday, the Palace said the Office of Transport Security of the Department of Transport and Communications and the board of Manila International Airport Authority already conducted a probe but the government is leaving the decision to Congress whether they want to conduct a separate investigation.

Gatchalian said the House should conduct its own probe to determine whether this kind of extortion-racket has been happening in the past and has gone unreported.

There were at least two incidents of the modus operandi reported including the case of 20-year-old foreigner, Michael White, who was detained for five days by the airport police for allegedly hiding a bullet in his baggage. He claimed he is not aware of the .22 caliber bullet discovered at the X-ray scanner of NAIA Terminal 4.

Palace said that the laglag bala cases reported were only isolated.

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