Manila: The head of aviation security in the National Capital Region will take a leave while personnel of another government agency are being investigated in connection with alleged bullet-planting incidents at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
Senior Superintendent Ricardo Layug Jr., chief of the national police’s Aviation Security Unit in the National Capital Region, will be on “study” leave while 15 members of a separate agency concerned with safety at the NAIA — the Office of Transportation Security (OTS) — are under investigation.
Philippine National Police Aviation Security Group director Chief Superintendent Pablo Francisco Balagtas confirmed that Layug would be taking time off from work while investigations into the alleged bullet planting scam at the NAIA are being conducted.
Aside from the 15 OTS personnel under investigation, the OTS had dismissed a total 59 personnel between 2012 (when the agency was formed) and 2014.
Dismissed
“For 2015, we have already dismissed nine personnel and have suspended eight others with forfeiture of benefits,” Undersecretary Roland Recomono earlier said.
He added that the causes of the dismissal were due to a variety of offences including violations of the “no tipping policy”, for which 11 were suspended.
The situation at the NAIA had been one of confusion during the last few weeks with public attention fixated on bullet-planting incidents that left some passengers traumatised while the image of the country’s premier gateway deteriorated.
Some said those incidents were being hyped to serve as a smokescreen to hide more damaging illegal activities taking place at the airport such as smuggling.
Recently, a number of passengers had admitted to bringing bullets with them to the trip as amulets, but some, including 20-year-old American missionary Lane Michael White, denied that the bullets OTS personnel found in his bag were his.
White had filed a case against OTS personnel nearly two months after he was detained and extorted from at the airport.
Other cases involved overseas Filipino workers like Gloria Ortinez, 56, who was released only yesterday after being arrested nearly three weeks ago. Other alleged bullet smugglers included 71-year-old Antonina Agustin, caught with a 9 mm and .38 calibre bullet “talisman” in her luggage.
Ortinez, Agustin and ten others, mostly women, were ordered released on Tuesday but their cases will still be heard in the courts.
Protection
Late last week, Labour and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz created an Inter-Agency Team to monitor and respond to cases of overseas Filipino workers being victimised.
“We want to protect our overseas Filipino workers from being victims of the “tanim-bala” or “laglag bala” (bullet planting) scheme. This deplorable modus operandi is sowing fear among our OFWs who are either going abroad for employment, or coming home to their families for a vacation,” she said.
“The main responsibility of the Inter-Agency team is to assist overseas Filipino workers who will be apprehended for alleged possession of ammunitions/bullets,” said Baldoz.
The government assistance also includes providing legal advise, counselling, free communication lines to immediate family, friends, recruitment agency or lawyer; and food and accommodation.
