Not a word of succor for ‘bala’ victims

Don’t expect the “tanim bala” racket to end soon. Instead of allaying anxiety at NAIA, P-Noy is waffling. He tasked to lick the extortion scam his inept Transport Sec. Joseph Abaya and NAIA general manager Jose Angel Honrado. The two have shown only apathy towards the grannies, OFWs, and a choirgirl who were framed with false flight security violations for shakedown.

Both blame the public outcry on the media. Siding with Office of Transport Security screeners who planted bullets in the victims’ luggage, Abaya assures that they’d get over it. He makes no effort to bar them from anymore extorting, goading instead Congress to rescind its harsh 12-year jail term for illegal possession of either only a single or a cache of bullets.

Abaya condones the negligence of his OTS chief. That dullard can’t explain why two passengers who had been cleared at airports of origin at Laoag and Iloilo cities would suddenly be carrying bullets at NAIA where they merely were transiting. He didn’t even know that his supposed eagle-eyed screeners who can “spot” a tiny bullet in a bag had let pass four drug mules carrying 2.5 kilos of cocaine to Hong Kong, where they fortunately were detected. Maybe that OTS sub of Abaya hasn’t heard that security x-rays have switches to focus closer for drugs, not only for metal or explosives. Or, that preceding the “tanim bala” was the “tanim droga”; and that before the inception of the OTS, the PNP Aviation Security Group was so adept at reversing the x-ray conveyor belts in order to steal clutch bags or foreign currency contents from departing Japanese passengers.

His ex-bodyguard Honrado’s ignorance should make P-Noy cringe. The guy claims to have no power as NAIA boss over the many government offices there, like the CIQ (Customs, Immigration, Quarantine). He doesn’t even know if there are CCTV cameras at the NAIA room where scam victims are brought for shakedown. So what does he know – aside from paying hundred-million-peso overprice for two rapid-exit taxiways? His immediate predecessor Al Cusi had been nicknamed “Super-GM” for rightly wangling a presidential order – still in effect – empowering him to straighten out the government offices. Another predecessor, Francisco Atayde, within days of appointment in the 1990s smartly installed spy cams and so was able to flush out the human traffickers; extortionate airport and Customs cops; pickpocket-porters, -guards and -janitors; and other assorted racketeers – including the first few bullet- and drug-planters. Does Honrado know there’s such a management concept as institutional knowledge, for him to learn from?

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Election 2016 admin standard-bearer Mar Roxas joined the fray on the side of the nincomp... basically he said three things:

• That more than a thousand have been arrested in the first ten months of 2015 (100 a month, three a day) shows that Filipinos are such flight security violators;

• The arrestees must confess either to have just come from the firing range or are superstitious wearers of bullet amulets; and

• There’s a plot to discredit the government and his presidential candidacy through allegations of extortion.

Roxas might want to say that to the face of Gloria Ortinez. The 58-year-old grandma was transiting at NAIA from Laoag to Hong Kong, where she’s been working as domestic for 22 years, when x-ray screeners slipped a bullet into her carry-on, but had to abort the shakedown and book her after she made a scene. Aling Gloria has not been able to return to her job, after two days of detention in handcuffs. Roxas might want to tell her why, 15 days hence, the OTS oddly can’t produce the CCTV footages of the supposed discovery of the bullet in her bag. Roxas can tell her why the photo of the bullet that the cops gave to the inquest prosecutor is of a stubby .45-caliber, but the actual “evidence” is a thin .22-caliber only half the length.

Roxas can say to the face of American missionary Lane Michael White – jailed for a week for initially refusing but later shelling out P30,000 for the planted ammo – that he’s just a superstitious amulet carrier and careless target practicer. Roxas can say to the face of sickly 77-year-old Filipino American Santiago Peñaflorida – transiting at NAIA and cleared at Iloilo to fly to Los Angeles – that he’s only discrediting his presidential bid. Roxas can say to the face of the 18-year-old Manileña – whom they prevented from boarding the sponsored flight to Korea with her choir and so had to rebook at her own expense – to just admit to her crime instead of crying extortion.

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Housewife Marie Paz Trias decided to press charges after accompanying her mom, uncle, and sick grandma to Singapore. Two female x-ray screeners had planted a bullet in her carry-on, after which a female supervisor advised her to “fix the problem,” that is, pay up. Trias pretended to call the NBI and so was just told to sign a logbook entry that she had surrendered a bullet amulet.

A Born-Again Christian, Trias abhors amulets and is appalled that her three tormentors have the temerity to badmouth her on TV, but with their faces conveniently blotted out. One of the three claimed to be Reborn too, which makes Trias all the more want to confront her for insisting that she voluntarily had confessed to owning the amulet. “If it was an amulet, then why did they arrest me to begin with, when the OTS now says it’s just to be confiscated after all,” Trias wonders.

The two other extortionists wore pink armbands last week and joined a Mass of OTS screeners. Some attendees appealed for understanding in the wake of supposed demonizing in the media, denying that there is a “tanim bala” at all.

Interestingly a new study at the University of Chicago shows that more religion makes one less altruistic. Featured in this week’s issue of The Economist magazine, the global experiment on Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, non-religious, and agnostic youngsters suggests that what is preached by religion is not always what is practised. The children of nonbelievers significantly were more generous than those of believers.

On the “tanim bala” mess, Mass goers do not necessarily become more charitable – doing right unto others. Sometimes organized rituals harden one’s belief in not doing any wrong in keeping quiet about the colleagues’ extortions.

In the end, the spiritual know, it is not religion but relationship with God that will save them. Salvation comes not by group denial, but individual acceptance of Truth.

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