Bad choice of souvenirs

Three souvenir jungle bolo knives and three coconut grass cutters caused much aggravation to a Japanese dentist when they were discovered by airport security officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Authority (NAIA) Terminal I inside one of his luggage yesterday afternoon.

Tsutomo Naito, 52, and resident of Chiba prefecture, almost failed to board Japan Airlines Flight JL 742 that took off for Narita at around 2:20 p.m.

The bladed weapons were found in his bag at around 12:30 p.m. while he was undergoing body and baggage metal detection scanning at the NAIA departure area.

Fortunately for Naito, his fellow members from the Rotary Club International-Japan Chiba prefecture chapter eloquently defended his possession of the bolo knives, saying these were bought as souvenir items for taking home to Japan as home and office display.

Omor Yo, one of the 48 fellow members of Naito in the Rotary Club International told airport policemen and security guards and media men, Naito had bought the bladed weapons in Occidental Mindoro where their delegation was the invited guests of Governor Josephine Sato for the province’s recent 55th anniversary celebrations.

Each knife cost P300.

Yo stressed that Naito did not think buying the supposedly souvenir items would put him in trouble at the NAIA.

After much deliberation, NAIA security people decided to just confiscate the bladed weapons and let Naito take his flight to Japan.

Superintendent Pablo Francisco Balagtas, chief of the Philippine National Police-Aviation Security Group’s 1st Police Center for Aviation Security, however, issued a call to all passengers at international and even domestic airport to refrain from bringing such items that could easily be classified as deadly weapons though styled as souvenir items.

"The tight security being enforced is for the safety of everybody," Balagtas stressed.