Speaker recommends firing of all NAIA screeners

MANILA, Philippines — Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista should remove all personnel from the Department of Transportation (DOTr)’s Office for Transportation Security (OTS) for causing international embarrassment to the country in connection with a series of reported airport thefts, according to Speaker Martin Romualdez.

“It’s very embarrassing, alarming, and it really makes you furious. How can we even entice foreign tourists to our shores if no less than our airport personnel keep on victimizing them?” Romualdez said yesterday.

“Attracting tourists should be a priority, and an incident such as this does not help us in encouraging visitors to our country,” he added.

Romualdez, an administration stalwart and first cousin of President Marcos, disclosed that he asked for a meeting this week at the House of Representatives with officials of the DOTr to discuss the incident at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which he said has become a national embarrassment.

In a statement, the Speaker said he would recommend to Bautista the “replacement of all OTS personnel at the airport with honest and professional ones.”

Nevertheless, Romualdez proposed that the DOTr just allow OTS personnel with impeccable or good records to reapply 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 land at the airport, it says a lot about our country, so it needs to be addressed sternly,” he said.

He added that in the reapplication, 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.”