Palace to punish NAIA employees in scams

MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino administration will punish employees of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) who had been extorting money from travelers by planting bullets in their luggage, a Palace official said yesterday.

“The government will not hesitate to punish NAIA personnel proven to be involved in the scam,” Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office said.

Sen. Ralph Recto will file a resolution today seeking an investigation of abuses allegedly committed by NAIA employees against tourists and balikbayans.

Recto said the bullet planting scheme at the NAIA is the latest in a string of allegations against its personnel.

“Stories of travelers who have been victimized by the bullet planting modus operandi and other scams at the NAIA went viral on social media,” Recto said.

The management of the Manila International Airport Authority and the Office for Transportation Security under the Department of Transportation and Communications are investigating the bullet planting incidents although they described the cases as “isolated.”

Recto said bullet planting is punishable by life imprisonment under Section 38 of Republic Act 10591 or the Firearms Law.

“The law says that if you are a public official and you plant a bullet on the person or property of an individual for the purpose of framing him up, you go to jail for life. It only takes a bullet and you will be spending the rest of your life behind bars,” he said.

Recto said the airport personnel who planted a bullet in the bags of an American missionary and a balikbayan should be punished if proven that they committed the crime.

He cited the complaints filed by travelers such as pilferage of baggage, forced shepherding of passengers into unaccredited taxis and illegal searches for huge amounts of cash.

Recto said the allegations should be investigated because the agencies, which are supposed to protect airline passengers “have failed to curb the abuses on their own.”

“There is no working system that is guarding the guards,” he said.