At Dumaguete airport: Canadian, Filipina wife fall to ‘tanim-bala’ modus?

CEBU, Philippines – A Canadian national with his Filipina wife claimed they were victims of the so-called “tanim-bala” while checking their baggage at the Dumaguete-Sibulan alternate airport bound for Cebu on January 7.

Their scheduled flight on board Cebu Pacific was 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon while the discovery of the bullet in their bag was 12:05 p.m. per record of the Aviation Security Group. However, the Canadian national later identified as Dale Elder and wife Nelly Grafe failed to come back, after relaying the information first to the Public Attorneys Office then to the National Bureau of Investigation.

NBI Dumaguete district head lawyer Dominador Cimafranca is also in a quandary as to what to do with the case while conducting an investigation on the matter because the alleged complainants did not come back.

He said the alleged victims did not file a formal complaint.  Cimafranca said they are ready with their investigation report and waiting for the Office for Transportation Security (OTS) and the Aviaton Security Group (AVSECOM) to file the necessary charges against the Canadian national, who is reportedly ready with his legal counsel.

Found in the sling bag of Elder was a bullet for cal. 22 magnum revolver marked Hornet with a tracer. According to acting OTS supervisor Velma Bajamunde, the airport CCTV would show nobody had touched the bag of the foreigner going into the X-ray machine except the owner himself.

After the first X-ray was conducted, a second one has confirmed that there was indeed a bullet in the sling bag. But when the OTS personnel had called for assistance from the airport police, the Canadian national quickly slipped out of the pre-departure terminal and got lost.

According to AVSECOM chief Police Inspector Melvin Atacador, they are filing the necessary charges against the Canadian national if it warrants, to clear their name against the verbal accusation of the foreign national. He said their best evidence is the CCTV footage and the two X-ray results, and would not allow the issue to be left hanging, that would create a wrong notion that they’re involved in such activity.

Bajamunde, on the other hand, disclosed and showed to media several ammunitions of different calibers being used as amulet or “anting-anting” which they found in the course of conducting X-ray examination of baggage prior to the incidents in Manila. (FREEMAN)