EDITORYAL — Is tanim-bala back?

Incidents of people being found with bullets during airport security screenings are back.

Earlier last month, a 69-year-old female passenger was found with four bullets at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Then there was another person found with a bullet at the Clark International Airport.

The most recent one was at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport where an HR manager was found with four bullets.

So we will just say what everyone is thinking: Is the tanim-bala extortion scheme, the one where airport personnel plant bullets in the bag of a hapless passenger so they can detain them in exchange for money, back in full force?

Not so, at least not here, according to MCIA officials, who were able to present video evidence that none of their personnel slipped anything into the HR manager’s bag. But then again, why would the HR manager knowingly bring bullets with her on board a plane?

For what reason would someone bring a bullet, or two, three, four, or even a hundred if there is nothing he or she can use it with? Bullets are useless without a gun. Are they smuggling it for profit? How much would one, two, three, or even four bullets bring? It just doesn’t make sense.

But then again, we haven’t known MCIA personnel to be dishonest. It isn’t one of the best airports for nothing.

Perhaps the best way to deal with bullets in airports is to just confiscate them from the person and let that person be on his or her way --given that he or she has no arrest warrants, previous associations with established criminal groups, or any suspicious background that is concerning.

This solution was actually implemented during the term of former president Rodrigo Duterte and it actually worked, although it should also be mentioned that the present Commission on Elections gun ban, which also covers bullets, may complicate things.

Given that seven Bureau of Immigration personnel were suspended recently for allegedly helping smuggle Filipinos out of the country and into Myanmar where they were exploited, there is that fear that our airports are again being used by some unscrupulous people to fleece money out of people.

We hope this will be proven wrong.