No guns, no vinegar: Airport authority bares latest list of banned items

The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) has come up with a "consolidated" list of prohibited items that passengers traveling through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminals I and II and the Manila Domestic Airport will not be allowed to take with them in hand-carried bags.

Along with the usual prohibited items such as firearms and ammunition and bombs and grenades, also banned from hand-carried bags are common harmless items such as vinegar, soy sauce, salt, hair spray, bleaching liquid, matches, tweezers, barbecue sticks, billiard cue sticks, manicure set, and many others.

According to the new MIAA Airport Security Center List of Prohibited Items, included in the dangerous substances that should be prohibited in passenger’s bags are hair spray; acetone; aerosol; astringent; bleach; salt (in large volume and improperly packed); dry ice (in quantities not exceeding two kilograms per passenger); formaline; varnish; insecticide; muriatic acid; spray paint; all kinds of seasoning especially those with pungent or acrid odor such as bagoong, fish sauce, soy sauce, and all sea produced "binurong" or salted products, and alcoholic beverages.

Included in the list of "dangerous" items, are all brands duct tape, Scotch tape, electrical tape, large safety pins, fish hooks, metal chopsticks, knitting needles, manicure sets, skateboards, hockey sticks, nail cutters, "nail pushers," billiard cue sticks, golf balls, cork screws, can openers and hundreds of others.

MIAA officials said that they came up with the list, which contains almost 400 prohibited items classified as weapons, dangerous articles, explosive and dangerous substance, after consolidating all the lists of the US Transportation Administration, the Philippine National Police-Aviation Security Group, and the different international airlines operating at the NAIA.

Retired Brig. Gen. Angel Atutubo, MIAA assistant general manager for security and emergency services, said that many of the items on the list have long been prohibited on international flights.

In the case of the cooking items and condiments included in the list of banned items, Atutubo said only those contained in breakable bottles are prohibited.

"Their inclusion was for considerations of avoiding flight or passenger inconvenience," Atutubo clarified.

It will be recalled that the MIAA has been continuously intensifying security at the NAIA terminals to prevent terrorists from carrying out attacks and to ensure the safety of the millions of passengers transiting through the terminals on both international and domestic flights.