Dodging bullets

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, airport security checks worldwide have come close to stripping passengers naked for any bomb or explosive component, guns and, yes, ammunition. Travelers know enough not to even utter the word “bomb” at airports and in flight.

So we must have an inordinate number of daredevils or morons who like to test if a single bullet in their carry-on bag will be detected by an airport x-ray machine.

Why anyone would carry a live bullet, especially on a plane, is another mystery. Being a hilaw na Tsinoy, I subscribe to a lot of superstitious practices, both Pinoy and Tsinoy, for attracting good luck and warding off evil (my Chinese friends dismiss a lot of it as silly mumbo-jumbo). But I’ve never heard of a bullet being regarded as an amulet against harm, except perhaps by the Abu Sayyaf, the Ampatuans and the murderers of the SAF 44. And I don’t think any of them has been bitten by the travel bug lately.

I doubt if even members of the ultra-exclusive “KKK” or kabarilan, kaklase at kaibigan of our gun-loving President carry around with them a single bullet for good luck. When they go through airport security, they will have a case of bullets plus their guns, and there will be airport porters to carry the weapons and ammo.

As for the rest of humanity, we can’t even carry a bottle of drinking water past airport security checks. Why would we carry a live bullet?

The bullets I see on ordinary civilians are mainly pierced, emptied of gunpowder and used as accents for costume jewelry.

So it’s interesting to learn from airport authorities that 83 passengers have been apprehended since 2012 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for violating the law against possession of live ammunition.

*      *      *

Some of the cases appear to be genuine violations. A few look like cases of mere carelessness in failing to declare possession of bullets – which is still subject to penalties, since ignorance of the law does not exempt you from it.

But the majority of the cases, if you study the details, tend to bolster complaints of those apprehended that they were framed for a shakedown by certain NAIA personnel.

Add to the suspicious details the credibility problem of airport management, and you have the bullet-planting or laglag-bala scandal blowing up in the face of daang matuwid.

The scandal is on top of the atrocious flight congestion at the NAIA, with airport officials trying to toss the blame to airlines. At daybreak last Friday a flight from one of the Southeast Asian capitals sat on the runway for two hours upon landing, waiting to go to its parking slot. There was a lot of cussing among the passengers, who were told by the airline crew that there was a long line of flights waiting to use the runway so they could not yet disembark. Taxpayers now have to shell out additional funds for the services of foreign consultants to improve traffic flow at the NAIA.

The bullet-planting scandal is threatening to become a national embarrassment when Manila hosts the annual leaders’ summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. No one will bother the APEC leaders themselves or their official delegations, but many other participants (some of them perhaps with accompanying relatives) and foreign journalists will be arriving ahead of the two-day summit, passing through regular airport security checks and the now much-dreaded x-ray machines.

If the allegations are accurate, the racket has already hit one of the sectors most vulnerable to abuse: overseas Filipino workers, the folks responsible for much of the country’s rosy economic figures.

OFWs from lower income households without cars are mostly the ones who take a cab to the airport. A seaman on his way to the NAIA last Oct. 29 claimed seeing the driver of a Vigil taxi drop something into his bag. Suspicious, the seaman first stopped by a friend’s place where they opened the bag and allegedly found a .38-caliber bullet.

The cabbie had nothing to gain from it, unless he was in cahoots with airport security personnel who would surely have detected the bullet, apprehended the traveler and then set him free for the right price.

About three years ago, South Korean expats also complained about numerous cases of carjacking and kidnapping along C-5, with the victims apparently trailed by the assailants upon leaving the NAIA.

The Koreans – who account for about a fourth of all visitor arrivals in the Philippines – suspected that NAIA personnel were tipping off the criminals. But this was never established because no one was arrested, although the attacks stopped after news reports came out about the Korean ambassador complaining several times to the Philippine National Police.

*      *      *

Many Koreans and other foreign tourists take cabs to the airport. Several foreigners are among those complaining that they were set up for laglag-bala extortion.

Tourism officials said the scandal has not affected tourist arrivals. But the story was carried by the foreign media only recently so any potential impact will be felt by the country later.

The bullet-planting scare will be in addition to the travel advisories issued by several countries on the threat of being kidnapped in the Philippines. One of the victims, a South Korean expat kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf last January, was found dead a few days ago in Sulu.

Foreigners have often expressed amazement at the proliferation of loose firearms in the Philippines. The country has tough laws on gun possession but a deeply entrenched gun culture that is mostly beyond the reach of the law.

The foreigners blame the lax enforcement of gun laws for the high crime rate. No need for official statistics; if you follow the news regularly, it’s easy to see that the Philippines has the highest rates of homicide and murder, deadly muggings, carjacking and burglary in Southeast and Northeast Asia. Our country has become Asia’s kidnapping central and is notorious for deadly political violence.

Now, Filipinos and foreigners alike who survive dodging criminals’ bullets across the archipelago and are preparing to leave the country must contend with one final bullet that may be dropped into their luggage.